Revision Update

Anna came out of surgery a little agitated, but she is doing fine now. We've been out of surgery and in our room for several hours. Needless to say, she has been upset about what is going on, but the doctor confirmed the shunt was partially obstructed, so it was a good choice to do the revision. We will be here overnight and should be discharged sometime on Saturday, as long as there are no complications. By then, Anna may not want to leave because she is getting to watch lots of TV and eat chocolate ice cream.

Shunt Revision

Just a note to let everyone know that Anna goes in for her shunt revision tomorrow (Friday) at 1:00. Actually, we go in at 11, but the surgery is at 1. We knew we would need a revision soon, since the shunt wasn't functioning properly, but we didn't find out until this morning that it would be tomorrow. This time around we will be able to enjoy the new Levine Children's Hospital that is part of CMC. It was under construction during our last surgery.

Easter and The Table

Ok, ok- it's the moment you've all been waiting for. What did we put on that table? Remember the poll? Remember the hype? The time has come for the great reveal.

But first.....

Here's some pictures of the children at Easter, and a little photo I like to call, "You're in trouble now."








And the winner is......

No One!

We got this nifty (free) iPod/CDplayer/Stereo thingy with greenhouse rewards points from FedEx. I think it is actually an Apple product.

Very enjoyable, and in classy Apple style.

We will remove the plastic from the cords. I promise.

Playing Nice

After drying my hair this morning, I proceeded to search for my children who had wandered to the opposite end of the house. They usually take this hair-drying-opportunity and use the white noise to cover up their most destructive projects. I was a little concerned to see the laundry room door closed, but much to my delight, I found them playing nicely together "fixing" Anna's red car. This inspired me to throw some pictures online. I am also including individual pictures of Anna and Emily in their matching flannel dresses. My mom made them in her "spare time" one weekend. Talent.

Food Allergies/Intollerance

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I've written anything. I was putting it off until I could get some new pictures on here, but Brad's work is busy this time of year and my free time is limited. I still plan on doing a post on some of the home projects we've done around here, and about the dresses my mom made for the girls, but those pieces of news will have to wait.

Today I took Emily to an Allergy specialist. As some of you know, Emily is allergic to milk. And soy. And peas. And turkey... After the turkey incident I decided to go see an allergy specialist instead of the gastro. Technically what we have are food protein intolerances. That means your body cannot digest the food proteins in a specific food. Peoples reactions vary in severity, but it usually includes bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Our vomiting is more along the lines of severe reflux, not projectile vomiting, but it is still a problem. The issues here are that you can become anemic from losing blood through your intestines, you suffer the discomfort of reflux/vomiting and diarrhea, and children stop eating and suffer from failure to thrive. Food intolerances are difficult to predict because you can't test for them. You have to just eat a food and see what happens. Then you put it on the good list or the bad list. You also have to hope that you never find a food to which you are so intolerant that it puts you in the hospital. That happens occasionally, and is unpredictable. The doctor said he has one child that is deathly intolerant to corn, but it never shows up on any of his blood work. Anyway, to make sure we didn't have any other true allergies (the immune system anaphylactic shock kind) we did the food allergy test today. While Emily has no severe, life threatening immune system allergies, we did test positive for peas and oranges. That means we are both allergic AND intolerant to peas. And stay away from orange juice. Otherwise it will be a guessing game with the foods. No soup for you!

This picture is a little old, but I thought it was a funny picture of Emily. We'll call it her "No peas, please!" face.

Some (so-so) Pictures Of the New House

So I am not sure if anyone still checks our blog since we have not updated it in so long. If so, we now have internet and also have Vonage. I have heard good and bad things about Vonage, but mostly good- so we are going to give it a shot. Here are some pictures of what the house looks like.

But first the girls.



Anna in the Kitchen with her Steak & Shake hat.


Emily on the rug in the living room.

Our blinds and palm tree.

The Kitchen.

The Bathroom.

Here is a table by the front door. It has two plants on it. The round one was originally $25 at Lowes, but we were able to get it for $3 since it was "ugly." It just needs a little care.


Ben's room. We got new beds for free from a friend of a friend.

And here is where we need your help. What should go on this table? It is beside the plant table just as you walk in the front door to the right. So far our options are plants, nothing, knick knacks, pictures, or a table cloth that goes to the floor.

Any ideas?



Hello folks, this is AB. My original idea was to put a table skirt on this thing to add some color to the room. Something that "pops". It would also add hidden storage underneath. That idea was shot down by all the non-HGTV-watching male gendered people on the block. So go ahead- tell Brad what to put on his table. He bought it all by himself. :) And the blinds look much better in person. They are made of bamboo, so when the flash went off, it made them see-through. However, when they are down at night, you can actually see the wooden texture, and you don't see the window beneath.

You Guessed It

If anyone has been wondering why we have disappeared from the blogosphere for a while- you guessed it- we've moved. The house is looking good, but pictures will come later. Our new house doesn't have internet or a home phone, and the cell reception isn't that great, either. Right now I am scavenging wireless off the neighbors (probably the greenhouse, although they have a secured network, so that shouldn't be possible). My signal is pretty low, so I'm not attempting to do any major communicating via the web. However, there will come a day when everything is complete, and I will once again resume the online journaling.