Prayers for Gracie

I'm not sure if many of you remember my post from April 2008 about Sweet Baby Gracie (you can read it here). But, my heart is aching for her and her family. Just this month, Gracie had a heart transplant. While this was a miracle, her little body is rejecting the new heart. Doctors thought she would be a candidate for another procedure, but we've learned now that she isn't. Sweet Baby Gracie is fighting for her life and it brings me to tears! I thought I'd started following her story when she was 6 weeks old, but she was actually only 2 weeks old. What a journey! Her family continues to amaze me and I can only imagine their heartache right now. I know prayer is REAL. So real that it can feel tangible.

You can read for yourself what's going on with Gracie here.
Please offer a prayer for Gracie and her family.

Update: Sweet Baby Gracie has come full circle. Yesterday, her family said goodbye to her and she was taken off life support. Gracie wasn't in pain, but her little body was going through too much. Just as Gracie received a new heart, she now has the opportunity to share her organs with other little babies.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Gledhill family.
Thank you for sharing your Sweet Baby Gracie with so many.

I'm Cinderella. Who are you?

Ryan found this for me. I thought it was pretty funny.
I guess you were right, Nisa!

Which Disney Princess Are You?
	You are Cinderella. You are hard-working and never complain, however, your trust is sometimes misplaced and people sometimes take advantage of you. Still, you are beautiful inside and out, and one day you will realize it and find true love.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Tell me which princess you are!

Just call me Snow White..or Cinderella..or Sleeping Beauty

I've been doing this since high school, when we lived in Michigan and these birds weren't hard to find (and thanks to my friend, Katie, who told me the actual name of this bird).

This is a chickadee. They have a distinct whistle/call. When I was probably 15, I learned that if I could echo these birds just right, these little chickadees would come find me. And, they'll get as close as they can to you, too. (Hence, the reason I would be run screaming back in the house as they'd swoop down near my head! As small as they are, I'm still pretty sure they could do damage - maybe peck your eyes out!)

Whenever I hear these birds, I echo their call and try to see if they'll come find me. Just yesterday (and then again this morning), a little chickadee came and found me. I try not to torture them too much watching them fly back and forth between two trees. But, when they start to swoop down at me, game over.

So, the point of the post is when you hear or see a chickadee, see if you can get them to come to you. (or maybe I just have a gift...like Snow White, Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty..) :)
Give it a try. It's pretty neat!

Repeats & Memories

What a week!

KAYCEE

Can you tell what these images are?

Well, the picture on the right is Kaycee's throat. The picture on the left, is Kaycee's throat too - only with a penny in it.

Last night, Kaycee had been tucked in, but snuck out to get a drink. Next thing we know, Clay comes to me and says he can hear Kaycee crying, she's not in her bed. We find Kaycee crying and through her sobs, she confesses she's swallowed a penny. This is a new one! She's obviously breathing, but I have no clue what to do next. My first instinct was to make her throw up because she was complaining it was still in her throat. So, I call over to our peds office and get a call back from an on-call nurse about 25 mins later. Kaycee had been calm for a while laying at the end of our bed, but still complained that her throat hurt. Because of those complaints, the nurse suggests we go to the ER. We thought perhaps her throat was just scratched and figured she's be okay. Boy am I glad we decided to take her in. After Ryan and Kaycee waited a while to be seen, x-ray showed that that penny was indeed, stuck in her esophagus! Next, Kaycee is taken up to the OR, put under, and an endoscopy is performed (a tool sent down her throat with a camera to retrieve the penny). It was a fairly quick procedure and it was killing me NOT to be with her at the hospital. I hated the fact that she had to be put under, that makes me so nervous - but she did really well and was home about 30 mins after it all.

I was so happy Ryan was there with her and could give her a blessing. She was so nervous to go to the hospital in the first place, her little chin started to quiver and she tried so hard to be brave and not cry. Huge alligator tears fell from her eyes. I told her it was okay to be nervous and to cry, but that the doctors were going to help her.

As soon as I found out she was going to have the endoscopy done, I thought of her tonsillectomy when she was just 2 years old. Again, Ryan stayed the night with her as I had a nursing Lucy.


Last night, Kacyee surprised the drs with how little her throat is. They were really surprised that the penny didn't go right down. Apparently the hospital hadn't seen any children this year yet who had swallowed money, but last night, Kaycee had followed a little 11 mos old that had done the same thing.

Here she is this morning, resting up. It was killing me not to be with her last night, but we are so grateful she's okay. (And, we got to keep the penny!)

CLAYTON

Well, Mr. Clay, on Sunday evening was playing down in Gma and Gpa's basement. He was running on the couch, fell and landed on the back on his hand with his wrist up, rolling his arm over his wrist. We were hesitant to take him to the hospital (I know, what's our deal?!), but felt like we probably should. Sure enough, his wrist was broken, a common buckle fracture. They put him in a splint and a sling and told us to see our ped on Thursday to get it casted. Again, my thoughts turned to when he had broken his other arm (his left) when he was 3.5 years old. He was dutifully helping Gpa clean his car when he slipped on the wet garage floor.

Then..(look at all their cheeks!)

...to his splint

...to his green cast

looks cool, dude (just like your hair!)

RYLEE

In happier, non-ER-related news, we attended Rylee's award ceremony yesterday where she recieved her 5th Outstanding Citizenship award! Not too shabby for her 3 year school career! Nice job Ms. Ryles.

Rylee receiving her award and a sqeeze from her 2nd grade teacher

So, for those of you still reading this incredible long post, I didn't want to forget this:

Finding a Smile

(Just one, this time) It was last Friday, Rylee was eating a fun dip she had gotten as a valentine. Kaycee and Rylee were both near me when Rylee dropped some powder. Immediately, Kaycee drops to the floor and starts licking. Uh.. (me) "Kaycee, get up, that's gross." She gets a couple more licks in and stands up and looks at me. Kaycee: "Where did she drop it?"

Oh, I LOVE MY KIDS!

Loving my Valentine

This is a picture that Clay took a while ago.
I hadn't ever noticed Lucy looking up at us - too cute.

I don't want to brag, but I have the best husband ever. This past week was way too stressful for my liking. I felt like I was racing Lucy to the potty every 30 minutes (darn if the whole thing actually worked and she's potty trained - sometimes diapers are so much easier) :) I found out that we have two family reunions colliding the same weekend we're baptizing Rylee. And, the worst one of all that made everything a million times worse... I've LOST my green card. The card that proves I am a legal/resident alien here in the US. AAHH! I have turned my house upside down searching for the darn thing and I have no clue when/where I misplaced it either. I just assumed it was in it's place. I renewed it two years ago and I still have the stub, etc. of me getting it, but the card is NO WHERE to be found. I completely understand why we're commanded to have houses of order. Just last week I was searching in the depths of the basement for all my kids birth certificates. Don't you have a file of all important records?
I DO NOW!
Good grief.

Back to my husband being the best, he has been so understanding of the crazy stress and my absurd mood swings. In efforts of keeping Valentine's Day simple, he made a huge, long list of reasons why he loves me and has left little paper strips ALL over the house - I'm still finding them! He is so sweet. In MY efforts of keeping Valentine's simple, I handed him a little carton of Milk Duds and apologized for being such a dud.

Oh Ryan, you put up with so much craziness.
I love you!

Finding a Smile

1. Ryan and I, along with Olivia, were finding some date night treats at the grocery store. Olivia was close to being out of diapers and we didn't want to have to go to another store so, for the first time EVER, I decided to buy diapers at the grocery store. I found a box of diapers on sale for $19.99. Not too bad. So we went to check out. I watched as the teller rang up the diapers. The sale didn't come up. "These had a sale sign for $19.99." He leaves to go check. Sure enough, he comes back and says "yep, you're right, those are on sale." Apparently, at this grocery store, if things don't ring up correctly, you get them for FREE! Yes, FREE! A whole box of diapers that I didn't have to pay for! AWESOME! (ps. this grocery store, may or may not, sound like schmalbertsons).

2. The kids were asked to get their jammies on. I find Kaycee singing her heart out on her bed facing the wall (I love it when they sing). I love the way she belts songs out - whether she knows all the words or not, or even makes up her own. Several times at Sunday dinner over at Gma & Gpa H's, we'll hear KC's lovely music coming from the bathroom. It must have some amazing accoustics!

3. Clayton, Kaycee & Lucy bouncing on Gpa's lap while he sings:
"I went to the store
to get a pound of butter,
but when I got home,
it fell down in the gutter"
and they fall through his lap. They love that!

4. Lucy came into my room and found me beside some "potty treat" wrappers. With great, big eyes and a smile to match "you went potty, mommy? Good job! Good job, mommy - you went potty."

5.This one really shows my maturity! While feeding Olivia, I was watching part of the news last night. There's an e.coli outbreak here in Denver and so the news station was listing the symptoms. I couldn't get past #1. While it was read "stomach cramps," all I could see written was "stomach craps." I giggled and giggled.

6. Last night, I was telling Lucy she had a boogie on her nose. "This one?" She shoves her finger up one nostril. "no, the other." "Oh, this one?" her finger up the other side. "No, Lucy, it's on the outside." "Oh. " Now it's ON top of her nose. "It's right there now." Showing her on my nose. She finds it and tries to flick it on me!! What the? "Who taught you that??" Lucky for me it was still stuck on her nose. We'll just leave it there.

Last Box!

I'm pretty sure Olivia is concerned for me...or maybe it's for Lucy...

About 3 weeks ago, I told little miss Lucy that this was the last box of diapers that I was going to buy her.
Time for the potty!
I gave her a week before I would start putting her on the potty, but all by herself, she started telling Ryan and I that she needed to go to the bathroom. She was successful about a handful of times and we were thrilled! I should have put her in undies right then (we don't say the p word at our house)! But, as I let up a bit and she was off doing her own things, she pretty much stopped - completely. UGH!

Potty training is not my favorite thing - nor is changing foul diapers! I've had much success in the past, so here we go. We're going to try the undies. The fancy waffle briefs. Here is Lucy today:

Now, if only she wasn't wearing a diaper underneath!