Worth reading

Hi girls, I know we don't usually just post links, but this article is kind of amazing.

http://www.zenmoments.org/the-cab-ride-ill-never-forget/

If you get a chance, it's worth the read.

Love you all!

A Fib

Thank you lovely ladies who prayed for us today. Here's the low down on what happened!
10:30PM - chris woke me up and asked me to check his pulse. It was clearly irregular to me, and i was half asleep. I started to pray but Chris didn't let me finish. He got up and said "Meggie needs a daddy, let's go to the ER!" OK!
They discovered very quickly that chris' blood pressure and heart rate were too high for comfort, and diagnosed him immediately with Atrial Fibrillation - where instead of the top part of the heart having a definate pulse, it flutters. It causes the heart to work overtime (creating a high heart rate), and produces a very funny looking EKG. At the ER, they decided he would have to be transferred to their sister-hospital, about 5 minutes away, in order to be treated in a cardiac unit. they started some meds there while they registered him and found a bed at the other hospital.
3:00AM - after the meds, benadryl (we hada scare of an allergic reaction to the meds at first), and something else to calm him down, we began the transport to Trinity West campus, a hospital not far from our home in Rock Island.
4:00AM - after argueing with Chris for the last 4 hours, I finally submitted (though after 4 hours, can you really call it submission??) to Chris' wishes and headed home. He was admitted into the hospital and in his room at this point.
7:00AM - I woke up, made the necessary calls for prayer warriors, parents, and work places, showered (i think, anyway), and headed back to the hospital. Chris' parents were my first call and they both beat me to the hospital this morning.
12:00noon - I again, lost the battle to stay awake and headed home for a rest.
1:30PM - I had slept for about an hour and a half when Chris called me to tell me the doctor we had been waiting for, finally arrived to review Chris' case. As soon as he walked into Chris' room, the nurse at the heart-monitoring station yelled in "He's in normal sinus!" BAM, just like that, his heart re-set and started beating normally once again. I called everyone with the updates and we were told Chris may come home in a few hours. yea!
4:00PM - I arrived back at the hospital.
4:15PM - The results from a blood test were back (negative for whatever they were testing for) and Chris was told he was going home. yea!
4:20PM (I kid not... 5 minutes later!) - the nurse walked Chris, myself, and his parents out of the hospital.
We will have a follow up appointment with this A-fib specialist in 4-5 months. But very soon, chris will be completing a sleep study. One of the reasons A-fib can occur is from sleep apnea. that's the first thing they want to rule out. other reasons include: binge drinking (not our lifestyle), smoking (again, not us!), eating too large of a meal (ok, we all do this sometimes), or having an old heart i guess. For now, we were told that Chris can do whatever he feels like doing, which is sleeping and resting this evening. and of course, loose some weight, which we were both planning on doing in about 3 weeks or so anyway ;) His diet just starts now, and mine gets to wait.
So, for now, we are all home, healthy, and safe. Despite all the stress I had these last 24 hours, megumi seems to be doing very well. She's still kicking me, sticking out her butt, and having regular aerobic exercise sessions :) Hopefully next hospital visit will be for me, and will be a much more joyous occasion. thanks so much for praying today. I could feel all day that we were being held up in prayer, and i cannot tell you enough how much that helped get me through. We love you all.

New Prayer Request

Yes, you're not going crazy, we have yet another prayer request for Katie. I think you're all aware that she has the birth mark on her neck called a hemangioma. Well, about a week ago, two spots on it started to scab up and bleed. Hemangiomas can ulcerate, or bleed, so I was not surprised when this happened. It didn't seem to be too worriesome at first, and I had her pediatrician look at it, who referred me to a dermatologist. Well, now it's infected and her neck has broken out in a rash (not sure if the rash is related?). Anyway, she's on an antibiotic now, and I've been taught how to care for it while it's ulcerating. But it's a killer for me, because she screams when I wash it, or put ointment on it, and it's so hard to do something that you know causes your child pain, even though they need it.

So we're now faced with what to do about this. The appointment was good and confirmed a few things I had researched. This could ulcerate again in the future, so there are two possibilities. The first is to inject steroids into her neck, which I'm going to research some more, but I know oral steroids come with many problematic side effects, esp. for babies. I really don't want to do that. The other option is to have it surgically removed (Julie, you can tell Josh laser isn't an option for us because I guess it only affects the top 1-2 mm of the skin, and hers is a deep hemangioma). The dermatologist does know of someone he could refer me to. After meeting with him today and doing a lot of thinking, I think this is really the best option for us. She has a follow-up in 2 weeks, and at that time I'm going to push to be given the name of a surgeon. I'm nervous about it because it is the most extreme choice, but I just can't continue to deal with this over and over, and then decide to remove it. Plus, the more it bleeds, the more scarring it will leave. I hate the idea of surgery and recovery, and she's at such a difficult age to deal with it, but I think it would be best. The other thing is,we're really hoping to get it done before we have to change insurance Dec 1.

So if you could please keep this in prayer for us, we would greatly appreciate it. Just prayer for Katie as this is healing, and that the infection would go away quickly. And also for favor with the doctor when we go back. He didn't seem opposed to going that route, but of course they like to be as conservative as possible. But on the other hand, I've been conservative for 6 months, and now it's getting to be too much I think. Also, if we do have surgery, that God could just expedite the process so we could get it done in November.

I really appreciate the support in the past, and it's good to know we've got prayer cover for Katie.

Also, keep the updates coming. Jen, we're all waiting to see pics of little Megumi once she arrives.

37

hello and good morning beautiful ladies!
Wow, hearing Angie talk about plane tickets makes me feel really out of sorts. It just doesn't seem like our Colorado reunion is that close! I suppose nothing in my mind really exists past October 19th. We have not purchased plane tickets yet simply because we are waiting for some frequent flyer miles to finish piling up before doing so... Chris flies to Denver non-stop quite a bit to see his partner, so we may be able to get out there without paying cash for our tickets. wouldn't that be nice!
So I have made my final Wal-Mart shopping list for things to pack for the hospital. Any of you moms who have been through it have any suggestions on what to bring?
better yet, any of you ladies tried doing this whole birthing thing without the assistance of drugs and have any advice for me!? i know, i know, i must be insane!
nothing going on here except waiting for little Megumi to come meet us. I'll be sure to text at least one of you as we go to the hospital, hopefully prior to the 19th of October :)
Miss you all, and truely wish you were surrounding me now as i get ready for this adventure. sure would be nice to have 6 extra aunts to help out around here :)

I guess we are committed...

So I started tracking the flights to Denver a couple of weeks again and found a good deal today. I got both Aaron and I's tickets for $438 and was ecstatic to see them under $300. I was expecting to pay more than $600 for our tickets, so when i saw the price today I couldn't put it off. So yea... We'll be there, not sure if we will be skiing or doing anything that costs money - but we will be there. :)

Update on the house... Things have been going very smooth and we are working on getting the last bits of paperwork in to finalize everything. Settlement is 10/27 and we plan on doing the painting and other stuff that week and then move in 11/1-2. I feel like God has been carrying us through this whole process and we are so looking forward to moving into the house He has just for us. Once we get in and settle I'll be sure to post some pictures. I can't wait!

See you all in Denver in just a few months!
Love you tons!

MS 150

OK, friends. It’s been a while. It’s been so good to hear your updates. Liz – Katie is getting SO big and she looks so great. What a miracle she is! Ang, you know I am totally thrilled for you and the new house adventure. You’ll have to keep me posted on that. I hope you and Aaron had great birthdays! I’ve got some stuff I need to send to you…
Jen, I am glad to hear your shower went well. I know we all wish we could have been there. Julie, I hope you’re doing well with baby #3! And keeping your sanity! Kim, I so enjoy your blogging and the pics you post on Flickr. I have been meaning to shoot an email back to you for a LONG time. Jamie – I hope the school year is going by without a hitch! Thanks again for all the planning you’re doing for our next reunion. I can’t tell you how excited I am for it! :-)

We’ve been busy, as usual, lately. I think you guys all knew that we were training for the MS 150 bike ride, so that took a lot of our free time. We finally had the ride this weekend, and it was really fun, albeit miserable at the same time. We got to ride through Ike, then a tropical storm, on Saturday. I only rode 70 miles that day, but Shawn did the whole 82. It was pouring for the last 3 hours and water was squishing out of my shoes with every pedal (and my padded shorts). We got to the recreation center that we were staying at, showered, dried off (yay!), then we had to head back outside to get food. It was all under tents, but the ground was so saturated that it was a swamp. After I ate the food that was soggy and cold, I decided that I didn’t want to do the next day. We weren’t sure if Ike was still going to be on us, or if we would get any sleep in the cold gym that we were sleeping in, and my emotions just couldn’t take it any more. We called some pretty dedicated friend of ours and they drove over to pick me up and take me home. Shawn is my hero, because he stayed and did another 65 miles on top of the 82 from the day before. Sunday was beautiful, but windy, which apparently made it 10 times more difficult than the day before. Shawn was out of commission for the rest of the day. :-) He did the WHOLE thing. I’m so proud of him. As soon as I get some pictures from the photographer, I will post them. I would do it again, crazy as it sounds. Next year, though, I’ll be in the middle of my internship, so I don’t think I’ll have time to train, but I plan on volunteering in the support staff. It was a great benefit and so fun (if I hadn’t been miserable, I probably would have really enjoyed it.) Lol.

So that was our weekend. We both took Monday off, and I really enjoyed having a day with little or nothing to do. Now it’s back to the grindstone – I’m at work all week. I have a baby shower that I’m throwing at work on Friday, so I’m preparing for that. I have my grad school interview on the 29th, so I’m preparing for that, too (if that’s possible). I’m also dealing with some stomach issues again and I’m seeing a specialist on Thursday. I think we’ll be deciding if I need further testing or not. We’ll see how that goes – I’m trying not to focus on it. Those are the big things, and of course the little things are still filling up our time, but I don’t feel as stressed at the moment as I did before. So, that’s me venting and sharing a little. Hope I didn’t bore you to tears! As much as I don’t write anything on here, I check it ALL the time. :-) I love you, my Sapphires!

Getting ready for fall...

So that's what we're doing around here. We spent a lot of time this summer working on our landscaping, which was a complete mess before. So now Nathan is trying to finish up some jobs before he packs it in for colder weather. It's nice to actually have grass now instead of weeds and some decent plants. Bella likes going potty and playing in the grass now too:)

Along with colder weather, I'm stocking up on warmer clothes for Katie, who seems to be growing all the time. I can't believe how heavy she's getting. When did she make that transition from being a little newborn baby to being a big, active baby? She's doing well. I spend much of this month going to countless doctor's appointments for her because she's due for routine checkups with all her specialists, and a few tests as well. I'm expecting everything to go well. She is becoming more active all the time, and I can really tell I'm going to be exhausted once she becomes mobile. Thank God for naptimes. And while her dexterity is lacking still, everything she gets in her hands finds its way right to her little mouth! I've been keeping up with her baby website if you want to see any pics.

Not too much else going on. We are looking forward to the fun stuff fall brings (and the newness of doing it with Katie), and going out to visit Nathan's family in October. The picture I included was taken Labor Day weekend when we went up north and stayed in a cottage. Katie really liked standing and sitting in the waves from the lakes. It was a nice relaxing weekend and a great way to end the summer:( But, I do have to say, the summer ending is not quite as sad for me as it used to be now that I'm not going back to work. While I miss it a little, I hear it's been a really rough start to the year with some tough kids, so I'm happy being home with my Katie-Bug.

Ok well, I've enjoyed the recent updates from everyone else. Keep them coming. Ang, keep us posted on the house. Jen, hang in there these last few weeks. Sleep, rest, and enjoy quiet times with Chris while you still can. And Julie, you keep us posted on baby progress too, and send pics of Lilah's b-day.

Finally some news...

For those of you who didn't know we were looking (casually), this will probably be a bit of a shock.

Apparently we bought a house. We weren't looking for very long, but got pretty excited about this one. It is the first one we put an offer on and we feel we got a really good deal. Things went very fast. We really only started looking seriously about 2-3 weeks ago. This one popped up last week and we had a chance to check it out on Sunday at their open house. We went through it again yesterday with our realtor, who informed us that it already had one offer on it. So we had to act fast. We came up with an offer, submitted it and found out at 6ish last night that they accepted. We have an inspection on the house on Tuesday, and unless we find some major issues, we'll settle October 27th.

Anyway... check it out. It's the one at 45 Spencer Ave., Lancaster.
http://www.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?20080821014832919481000000&id=1&s=5

We are still kinda in shock, but really looking forward to making it our home.

pregnancy pics

hi girls!
Jaren was in town last weekend and took some pregnancy photos, check out her blog!
here
two posts about Chris and I, and therefore 2 posts with pictures of my belly!
much love, Jen

Just an update

Hi girls. I thought I'd write a quick update since no one has posted anything in so long. Ok, I guess it's just been a couple weeks, but still. I need my Sapphires updates!

Things are really starting to look up out here in California. I'm starting to find my way around a little better (although I did get pretty lost last week and had to call Adam for help). I joined the MOMS Club here (thanks to Julie's suggestion) and it has really been a Godsend. I've already met so many people and there are bajillions of kids Violet's age and playgroups and outings and just all kinds of stuff. We're also doing Gymboree, which is completely cute and ridiculous (singing songs about rolling balls back and forth) but Violet loves it, so we'll probably stick with it.

I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that we're going to be here for a while so I might as well make the best of it. We've been exploring a bunch and have found some really fun places. There are a lot of really kid-friendly things to do here, if you know where to look.

Adam's mom was just here for Labor Day, so we took her to Hollywood and some other touristy places. We also went to the zoo, which was great. We actually decided to become members, it was such a nice zoo.

We went to Colorado a couple weeks ago for family time and to go to Adam's high school reunion. It was a lot of fun meeting his high school friends and hearing crazy stories about him, although I temporarily forgot about the whole altitude and alcohol thing, so I was kind of worthless the day after.
We got to hang out with Jamie and Nick for an evening as well, which was so much fun. We also did a photo shoot with Violet and her cousins at the park and got some really cute shots. I just posted them on Flickr too, if you want to see more (and you know you do).


I'm still working on The Daily Puppy photos. I've also been getting some contract work from my old contacts at Onlineshoes, which has been great to help pay for trips and things, like the one coming up this month to Ohio.

Violet's pulling up on everything and "cruising" along the couch and furniture. She takes a few steps while holding on to our fingers. I think watching the bigger kids at playgroups really encourages her to try things, which is good and bad. I think she ate some bark yesterday.

Hope all is well with you girls. Love ya!