Oh, BTW, Happy Halloween!

Usually Halloween is a big, long production including lots of time sewing costumes. This year was an exception...what a surprise :) As it approached I realized we had no costumes for the boys or myself. Every year my 2 friends and I host a big themed party complete with games, activities, food, and more. This party was also simplified given our recent events. Thurs. the 30th I took the kids to the thrift store and costumes we did find! I couldn't believe I found all the perfect pieces I needed in one trip at the last minute. The thrift store is not always so kind.

That day was very hectic...Andrew had an eye doc appt. that morning and found out he needs glasses, so after school Tom took him to pick some out. I dug around in the decoration boxes and threw some stuff up on the porch and in our window. Tom took the kids out trick or treating, as usual, in our neighborhood, then the boys went to a party at Tom's friend's house. I stayed home with Summer and passed out candy here. The kids got a huge haul of candy...oh joy. Andrew promised me he would eat it all and not save it :) Little Tom usually stashes it for months before I finally throw it away. Morgan tried her best to eat it all the next day!

Andrew drew on his faces and I cut them out...his eyes were still dialated from the eye doctor...

Tom and Morgan had fun digging out the guts...yum!

Phew....fastest decorating job ever!

Jackolanterns all lit up....no candles this year because of the explosion of oxygen tank issue....

My little devil :) Ah, how appropriate...he's really an angel in disguise :)

Tom's grim...as the reaper...he likes the cool sickle we found

Morgan agreed to wear this Little Red Riding Hood costume I made for her last year...she loves hoods...she started by Trick or Treating at our door before they even left! This girl has a serious sweet tooth!

I even carved a pumpkin for little Summer :)

Andrew, Antonio, Morgan and Tom posed (reluctantly) before they left

Andrew's eyes even cooperated for this pic ! Tom displays his stash that will probably last him all year! Ha ha

Cattle Drive, Cook Off, and Showdown at the Rockin' L Ranch

Our annual adult only party on Nov. 1st was a cowboy theme. We had everyone bring their own rubberband gun and had different target pratice tests they needed to do to see who would be the new sherrif...It was fun seeing a bunch of adults running around shooting things with rubberbands :) My friends, Cathy and Bridget and I plan this every year and start discussing our plans in the Spring. It has become a fun tradition each year. We are even writing a book based on our themes we have done! We have been working on it for almost two years off and on and are trying to get it finished to be re-submitted to a publisher...needless to say, my life has been turned a bit upsidedown lately! I haven't been able to contribute much in the recent months....maybe life will slow down a bit for me soon, haha....

Yeeehaw...Me and the little cow with hubby....ah, yes, he too looks good in this borrowed pink hat!

Allison shows off one of the many Wanted posters Bridget made for everyone...her identical twin sister, Amber posed for the picture used :)

Angie and Brandon were brown baggin' it that night!

We 3 responsible for the yearly mayhem...Cathy, Me, and Bridget...our brains only function together :)

It usually takes a few "shots" to get a good one!

Note the coffin clock used almost evey year with different legs inside...Bridget's hubby Tracy made this a few years ago for our Edgar Allen Poe Victorian party...an annual favorite for us :)

Vannah with the pin the brand on the cow game

Stick em up! Our annual group photo...

back: Joyce and Mark, Bridget, John, Suzy. Middle: Allison, Tracy, Mel K, Mel C, Tom, Summer, Cary, Cathy. Front: Ben, Angie, Brandon, and yes, another Mel! Mel M.

Just one more for posterity...my theme song!

Suzy won the showdown and was the new sherrif...we adorned her with a badge and pop gun

Ben and Bridget...her yard stick shot far!

Cary and me...like the boots? They are Suzy's George Strait signed elephant skin boots...she made me remove them after the party and leave them at her door....I delivered them wrapped in a diaper for safe keeping :) They are her babies after all!

Nice gun....it's amazing what you cna do with 5 minutes and a roll of duct tape! I did have to make some adjustments throughout the night as my gun kept shooting the closepins with the rubberbands......Bridget said it hurt, oops, sorry :)

Angie and our damsel in distress, Allison

Brandon and Mel M

Tracy's best cowboy stance and Mel K

Suzy the ghost rider and Mark with his 6 shooter...looked cool, not too efficient in a shoot out though

Cathy, John, Joyce and Tracy waitn' for their turn at shootin'

Tracy, Suzy, and Mark

Nice belt buckle! Angie was a recycled homemade cowgirl

More shoot out

Our games were as easy as shootin' ducks in a barrel!

Aw, cute little cow... ...complete with rubber glove udder

Cary's rubberband gun was as long as his car!

Our shootin' range included a Jackolantern target

Evil Mel C and good Mel K

Mmmm, homemade Sasparilla

Allison did the dishes...well, hers at least :)

Bridget wore dead things :)

Mel K tried to escape my photo finger....booo hahaha.....got her

Suzy and John are naturals....she laughed when her mother in law commented how funny it was she came home from horse back riding and changed to get ready for a cowboy party!

Mmmmmm, the food is always good....sorry Tracy, I caught you red forked....I am usually the one posing for this shot, you are just the lucky one this time! We had stew, chili, cornbread and pie :)

Ben and Cathy host the party every year...after their huge remodel, they win for the biggest house!

Ben

Joyce and Mark had the cool 6 shooter guns

Cathy and her gun she had her hubby make

Life at Home

My life in a (pea)nut shell...

Morgan's foot was perfectly preserved on this PB&J left on the floor. This week has been crazy!

Tom has been home all week so I thought I would get a lot done. HA! Curtains are still unfinished, Summer's room contents are still piled in my room, no more painting done....Ah, the life of parents of a kid with wires is a bit more complicated than thought. We have had to throw a couple of bags of TPN out because of mistakes, Summer is producing lots of laundry, and we are up all night "partying" with her :) She is a great sleeper...from 3 AM on...ugh. But, she seems to be very happy being home and she rewards us with cuddles and smiles :) We've even managed to squeeze a few regular life events in between it all...

Look...she put Daddy to sleep...what a surprise :)
I was changing out Summer's TPN and she decided to pull out her feeding tube...so, what the heck, I changed out her cannula (oxygen tubing). I grabbed my camera and got a couple of quick fuzzy pictures...I'll take fuzzy with no tubes! :)

A cute closeup of our "golden girl" as Tom calls her

Cute little Summer loves to cuddle like this...check out her little ladybug toes on the cute outfit Mindy gave her :)

Joan has been so sweet with all the love and support she has given us...she got to cuddle Summer too :)

My friend, Lynette stole some cuddles too

A quick Pumpkin patch run

My friend, Suzy has a pumpkin patch at her church every year on the front lawn. When we pulled up, little Tom said, hey, this isn't the one we've been to before! Ok, so it wasn't the unconventional patch, but the kids had a blast running up and down the hill looking for cool pumpkins anyway! They now want to go to it every year :)

LynetteShawn, and Lindsey met us at the pumpkin patch

Morgan insisted on pulling the heavy load...
...and pushing it...

...and lifting them...

...all the way to the car...OOPS! her skirt fell down!

Summer slept through it all in the car...cute little punkin

Andrew's impression of a Jack-o-lantern

Tom found a bunch...we dragged them all home. He says he has a whole pumpkin family :)
This week Tom earned his Bear at Cub Scouts...just in time to advance to Weeblos :) Yes, he was happy, just not for the camera :)

Summer is Home!

Well it actually happened...we brought Summer home last Thurs. Oct. 23 at 3 1/2 months old, weighing 8 pounds, and accompanied by an oxygen tank, 2 IV pumps, and a feeding tube. Our lives have definitely gotten a bit more complicated, but it is all worth it :)

I spent the night Wed. with Summer in her room. We stayed up most of the night cuddling...I think she realized I was there for the longest time I had ever been and she didn't want me to put her down :) So, after only 3 hours of sleep, it was time for the big day. A respiratory therapist arrived at 11:00 to bring an oxygen tank and train me on how to use it. Shortly after, I ran to grab lunch. Tom arrived around 3 and we waited for the Home Care nurses to arrive. We put Summer into her car seat to make sure she was ok in it...After about 3 hours of training on the TPN pumps, we were free to go.

Daddy cuddles Wednesday while still at the hospital

Summer still has tiny hands...wrapped around Daddy's finger :)

Summer's chillin' while waiting for us to go

Cam, one of her NICU nurses, came to say goodbye

Summer wasn't sure she liked her seat at first

We hauled all of our medical supplies to the van and away we went. We got home around 9:00 PM and were greeted by our kids and Tom's parents.

Tom hauled Summer out to the van, yeah :)

This is the walk I have done many many times. There is a safari theme and every time Morgan would come with me she would point at the "baby gaffe, mommy gaffe, baby zeba, mommy zeba, baby hannasee, and mommy hannasee (elephant, how she came up with this name, I do not know!)" It was somewhat anticlimactic after so long here to just go out the door without any fanfare....we were having a party in our own minds!

Summer snoozed in the van...with her new best friends, the little red backpack that holds all her pumps and the portable oxygen tank

A glimpse of Summer's new room while Grandma Julie cuddles her


I was a little worried about how Morgan would do with Summer's arrival, but she was pretty excited to see her come in. She kept saying "Baby Supbo at my house!"

It took us a while to get settled, but Summer slept right through it all.

We forgot to take the bassinet down from the attic so Tom made her this laundry basket bed, haha....I ended up sleeping most of the night holding her while sitting up in the recliner anyway!

Summer took a quick nap drenched in pink :)

The next day was little Tom's birthday. We sent him off to school with some Twinkies for his class. A Home Care nurse arrived and continued with our training. We hadn't unpacked anything yet, so she helped us organize it all and gave good suggestions for how to use our space for prepping the TPN. She was here for 3 1/2 hours, then we were on our own. An hour later I took Summer on her first outing to the Pediatrician. Then it was back home for a while, unhook the TPN and out the door for pizza. It didn't exactly go that smoothly, we changed the cap on Summer's IV line, but didn't have the right cap. A process that should only take a few minutes took a lot longer. We panicked and called the nurse....no problem, we will switch it out on Monday when she comes back. Now we only had about a half an hour to eat, we ran out the door to Round Table just behind our house. After we ordered the pizza, I decided she needed to get hooked back up so I ran home, plugged her in and back to Round Table I went. Breathe here...We scarfed some pizza and then took little Tom to a Game store to spend his Birthday gift cards he got. Summer did great all day. She spent a lot of time in her car seat and slept "like a baby" :)

Little Tom opening some birthday presents
Morgan gave baby Subpbo lots of kisses

Saturday was a lot more uneventful, thank goodness :) Tom did accidentally use the wrong tubing when he prepared the TPN and had to redo the entire thing, but other than that, I think we are getting the hang of it, maybe... The kids love having Summer home and so do we. She is very sweet and sleeps really well. In fact almost too well. Since she is hooked up to her feeding tube 24/7 and we she doesn't cry when she is hungry, it is hard to remember to change her diaper regularly. She slept last night for 9 hours and I woke her up to find a swamp....oops, sorry Summer :) I got her cleaned up and did the binky trainer with her. She is now cuddling with little Tom and very happy :)

Little Tom likes to hold Summer :)


Our week is filled with Dr. appointments...Tom will be home all week...the adventure begins!

Homeward bound!!!

Tomorrow is the BIG day...Summer's coming home tomorrow evening after we have some more instruction on her IV line and get our oxygen tank delivered! This has definitely been a long time coming...can't wait for all those sleepless nights ahead :)


Just a quick recap on current happenings...

I have been working like crazy trying to finish everything in her room....painting, curtains, floor, etc., and of course, I am not done. Argh.... However, I did get the room basically painted, adding a lighter pink stripe and making the top of the wall white. We had the best intention to refinish her wood floor, but procrastination set in and it didn't get done. I spent 2 hours last night crawling around scrubbing with Murphy Oil Soap (insert shameless promo here!! It works fantastic!!) and a Pampered Chef scraper (another said promo). I managed to removed most of the visible paint splatters and gunk left from being covered with carpet...I have the sore arm and chapped hand to prove it! The whole time I was working I was thinking I should have taken a before picture, but knew if I crawled up off the floor I wouldn't get back down...old age setting in...So, just use your imagination and please just be impressed with my efforts :) (Pictures come later when it is all done)


The last couple of days Tom and I have been learning how to take care of Summer with her attachments. She will have a feeding tube with pump, and IV line with 2 pumps, and an oxygen tank. The 3 pumps will fit into a little backpack we can haul around and we will find out about the portability of the oxygen tomorrow. It is pretty simple...hahaha. We have to scrub down, change gloves about 3 times each time, and make sure we keep all her IV supplies sterile and not touching each other. This is sounding like a real Morgan related nightmare...good thing I can lock Summer's door. Please don't call CPS if you happen to pass my house and hear a large amount of screaming...it could be coming from Morgan being denied access to fun wires and buttons, Summer, because of her fun wires and buttons, me because of it all, or, the most likely, ALL OF THE ABOVE! This is my destiny....bring it on! By the way, if you are in an emergency and need medical supplies I am your woman :)

I am staying tonight with Summer to hook up our pumps and test drive them. Our portable oxygen for the ride home will be delivered tomorrow morning, more IV teaching with Tom tomorrow afternoon, our trip home, then oxygen set up at home tomorrow night. Phew... I am really looking forward to PJ's and sleeping in for my upcoming future! Yippee!

For our new OCD/Anal life style to be kept as germ free as possible, the doctor's have recommended the following:

~Anyone to hold her or touch her must wash their hands
~No contact with anyone who has cold or flu symptoms...keep a 3 foot distance from anyone coughing or sneezing
~No kissing her face (except me :) )
~If you must touch, touch her toes, not her hands or face
~No contact with children who have not been immunized
~No smoking around her (lung issues)
~No wood fires around her (lung issues)
~No open flame (because of the oxygen)
~No dating until she is 20

Okay, my hubby would want me to throw the last one in....our life is going to get a whole lot more fun! :)

Getting ready for Summer...the baby :) *with revised toe shot...ewe

OUCH!

Can you guess what this is? No it is not part of my Halloween Costume...

Before

After nail polish removed...pretty eh?

...as I have been getting Summer's room ready, I sustained a lovely injury. I was moving a bookshelf and one of the shelves fell out and landed on my big toe...OUCH! It is quite a nice color combination, if we were celebrating the 4th of July! I am afraid to take off the lovely red nail polish (embellished by the touches of pink I can't seem to scrub away from Summer's room) to reveal what lurks below...I will, and I will share it. Aren't you looking forward to it? :)

Here is our little cutie with all her current attachments. The white tube on her chest is there to stay for a while...it is her broviac catheter they installed on Monday. The big grey thing on her belly is the wound vac that is there to help her incision heal...you can see most of her incision just above the top of her diaper (it looks like a crease in her skin) It's healing quite nicely :)
Look! Summer's eyes are looking a little more blue!

Summer's chillin'
As Summer settles in to sleep, Morgan does too...watching Sponge Bob

I have been getting a little frustrated the last week or so waiting for more definite answers regarding Summer coming home. It seems like everyone I talk to says well, maybe next week... Monday was no different.

Today I got a lot of great answers. I talked with the med student watching Summer today and cornered her. She left for a while and came back with answers and sent in the nutritionist to talk to me. They have been increasing Summer's breast milk and reducing the TPN...she is now at 13 cc's an hour of milk and is condensed as far as she can be on her TPN. Tomorrow they are going to try and cycle her TPN (run it for a block of time and turn it off for a couple of hours). If she can maintain her blood sugar when they do this, we can play with the length of time she can be off it. At first it might only be 2-4 hours, but what a great 2-4 hours that would be! The nutritionist wants to get her figured out before she comes home so I can be trained on the regiment that is the best for her. Summer is in the 50th percentile on a preemie chart, her head is growing great, her length is good, and her weight is even a little heavier that it should be...she was happy about that! Summer is now 8 pounds 2 ounces :)

The wound vac is still on...as you see in her picture...and is not sucking anything out. That is great...it means there is no fistula (a small tube that would ooze bile), and the wound is healing nicely.

All the labs done today looked pretty good. The med student found out the results from her eye exam finally too...she is between stage 1-2, 1 being the best. So, there was a little improvement from her first two tests :)

The attending doc stopped in and said they are still looking toward next week for discharge and she looks good overall. We'll just keep waiting!