The fair!

But first. Yesterday we had a birthday party for Matt's childhood friends little girl. Let me say. For not knowing a soul there o just walked right on up, sat next to the bday girl for cake and pretty much made herself at home. Lol!





And today we met all our friends in Monroe for the fair. I probably haven't been to a fair since I was in junior high. I VIVIDLY remember the carnies having to stop the tilt-a-whirl bc I was not breathing. I don't know who told them to stop but but I am so glad they did. I do not do rides. Hate them. Even Ferris wheels make me dizzy. Ask o. So anyway, I would have never loaded her up and taken her myself and Matt is working tonight so he slept all day. So in swoop my friends. When planning this shindig I made sure that one of their husbands would be fine with riding with two kids bc this girl just can't do it. I'm so lucky that my friends husbands have kind of adopted us. :) but lucky for us the kids were tall enough to ride by themselves! O HAD A BLAST. And during the swings she and drew were screaming, "this is the best day ever!" (Name that princess....) when asked what her fav part of the fair was she replied, "all of it!!"
































Their first roller coaster!














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heart update round 2 and recital pics!

Dr. King called today. Official diagnosis is dextracardia with L-transpostion of the great arteries. No heart cath or MRI. But one more echo with the specialist from New Orleans to review her leaky valve and then semi annual appts to watch for heart block. Hart block is an abnormal heart rhythm. From what I can tell that will happen. We just can't predict when. A pacemaker is the fix for that. From a very limited research on my own, this is pretty rare. One article suggested that only .5 - 1% of all people with congenital heart defects have this one. That's roughly 5,000 - 10,000 people in the US. Not sure how accurate that is.... We are not limiting her activity. She can play as hard as she's comfortable with. At 4 I'm not sure she can accurately measure what she's comfortable with so I do plan to start talking to her about it in simple terms. We are to watch out for extreme fatigue, dizziness, headaches, fainting and chest pain. Or if we think she just looks funny. I think I'm going to look for a CPR class soon. We all know I'm not a paranoid person but if something happened on my dime and I wasn't prepared I'd never forgive myself. I may make my family and her dad take the class too. If y'all are reading this, get ready! Matt and jenny are excused since they are trained medical professionals! Dr. King's words were, "considering the conversation we could be having, this is a best case scenario." So I'm relieved and worried at the same time. Not as worried as I was but still....

Now for the awesome pics Stacy Scheer took of o at recital back in may!!




















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Heart update

Back in August we had her annual echo. I think I blogged that. I never called for the results bc I figured if it was bad they'd call me. Well.... Dr King himself called me Saturday at 2:30. Talk about a shock. The echo revealed her right heart pressure was 66 and normal is 30-35. He also said something abt the right side arteries. And he mentioned a heart cath. Then he told me to be there Monday at 1. And that's seriously just about all I remember about the conversation. So we do as we're told and showed up at 12:45 today. He all but met us in the lobby and ushered us on back. They have a new echo machine (o was the first patient that it was used on back in August) that is top of the line. He informs us that we'll need an updated chest X-ray after this visit and we start right away. O was out like a light (snoring) within a few minutes of turning the lights out. Long story short it was discovered that her aortic and pulmonary arteries are switched. One usually comes from the right side and the other the left. Hers are backwards. And that's why her pressure levels were picking up as high. Bc they were being measured wrong. Bc the technician didn't know. Not her fault! This condition is called congenital (meaning at birth) corrected (meaning God fixed it) transposition. Or something really similar to that. There is some question (if I understood correctly) if she has all four vessels that carry oxygen? She may have 3??? He is consulting with his team in New Orleans for final diagnosis. We'll go back in about 2 weeks for confirmation. If all the doctors agree with him then we probably won't do anything else except possibly see the pulmonologist again and continue with 6 month - annual appts. If they don't all agree we'll head to new orleans for a heart cath and/or a MRI/MRA. Now the reason for the chest X-ray today.... She may have some bronchial cysts. Not sure yet. After re-studying her old X-rays he picked up on them. What that means or how it's treated.... I have no idea. Back to the heart.... This condition can (doesn't always) have complications. The most notable is heart block which would require a pacemaker.

O was over the wait at st Francis!


Showing off her bracelet.





But she hammed it up for the cute, young X-ray guy. :)





What I took from the appt: all of this is good news. Her pressure is normal considering her condition. Her heart is pumping great for the time being. There is no blockage. No holes (that they can see; holes are typical with this). If the heart cath is necessary its just to confirm correct diagnosis. No stints or anything crazy like that.

I thank God that this is serious but not life threatening. And it's treatable. Not all families are as lucky as we've been. I took o to dance this evening and on the way it dawned on me.... Lots of kids are too sick to dance. We are most definitely counting our blessings. Thank you all for the prayers.

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Playing catch up

Grandparents day at school.





First home game.





Bid night.











First day of dance this year.





2nd home game.





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We're going to the chapel and we're gonna get ma-a-a-ried!!

Literally!! Because Matt asked me to marry him last night!!

We've talked about getting married for close to a year now. Just kinda playing the waiting game. We traveled a lot this summer. Way more than I'm used to. And we came home from every trip without any new jewelry. I was starting to get mad. Just being honest. :) So he was coming over last night and we didn't have plans so I threw on my pj's as soon as I got home from work. He shows up and piddles around and says he has something for o. He breaks out a box with a ring in it. She was about half interested but I had lots of questions! My last question was why and then it hit me. My heart started beating. I got nervous and I jumped up. Not sure where I was going, Matt bee-lined it for the kitchen. He proceeds to get another small box off the counter and says he has one for me to. I think I asked if he was serious a couple of times. He assured me he was. So I shouted "well do you have something to ask me?!?" (Tact is never my strong suit!) he then popped the question!! I think I said yes. I'm not really sure. I then explained to o what had just happened. She is on cloud 9. She was dancing and smiling and planning the event!

My favorite quotes from o:
*When asked when we should get married - "ok. We'll do it next Saturday."
*"We can get flowers from the hardware store."
*When explaining that Matt will live with us - "ok. He can sleep in gg's bed and GG can sleep on the couch."
*After prayers last night - "mama, it's going to be weird having a boy live with us." She's right. It's been me and her for almost 4 years.

I am also on cloud 9. Obviously!! Matt is kind, gentle, patient, quiet. He is my opposite. He calms me. He ADORES Olivia and she him. He accepts my many flaws without hesitation. He has, from day one, accepted Olivia as his own. And I trust him. Completely. I could not ask for a better man.








And the fact that he included Olivia in this just makes my heart swell. He gets me. He gets "it".

In the words of the girl that introduced us. "Who'd have ever thought that you'd be the one to tame Matt Thurman!" It's crazy. All those many, many, many, many months ago I just needed a date to a wedding. He so graciously agreed. I just thought he felt sorry for me. We've been connected at the hip ever since and now plan to stay that way for the rest of our lives. God is good!

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New York, New York

Such an amazing trip! We had the time of our lives and are still talking about it! We arrived at the hotel abt 5 and got dressed for dinner at Stanton Social. Then we made our way via subway to Times Square.











Friday started early with the Statue of Liberty, a walk up Wall Street, a visit to the 9-11 memorial, a trip to Chinatown, date night at Croton Reservoir Taverrn and ended with the Top of the Rock.






































Saturday was Central Park, FAO Schwartz, lunch at Carnegie Deli, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, a Yankees game and dinner at Smith & Wollenskies. We ended the night with drinks at the rooftop bar at another hotel. The Peninsula maybe??
































Sunday was shopping, lunch, Lincoln Center, the museum of natural history and then Wicked!! We ended the night with pizza after the theatre.












































Monday the girls and Johnny got up WAY early and headed to the Today Show. Best experience ever!! We ended up front row, I spoke to Nelly and Hoda Kotb and we were on tv. A lot!!























And then we boarded a plane for home. Seriously, one of the best trips of my life!

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