Saturday, June 21, 2008

Saturday, June 21, 2008
Vacation! Current mood: quiet
We left for Pensacola yesterday at 11am and finally arrived at 7pm. It took a little longer than usual since we stopped longer than we normally would. The days of getting in the car and stopping once for gas & potty are over now that we have a child MJ did really really well in the car, if I must say so myself. She got cranky one time when she was SO tired and didn't want to just give in and fall asleep, little stinker! Anyways, it feels so good to be down here with my family knowing that we don't have a thing that we HAVE to do for the next 10 days. YIPPEE!
Tonight we all loaded up and went to look at a house my bro-in-law found on the net. (they have been house hunting for about a year now!) Well, they didn't like what they saw but continued to drive around the town. They happened to see a realtor putting up a for sale sign in a neighborhood and she actually showed them around the house, since it was vacant. It is a really nice house and would be perfect for them and is the perfect price! They are discussing it tonight and may put in an offer tomorrow! SO EXCITING for them! Their first house It is a great starter home with 1800+ square feet and a nice yard. I really hope that it works out for them, they have been looking for so long. It is hard to find a house down here because of the cost of house insurance if it isn't built in the past 4 years. I wish we could transplant our house down here.....we could make a nice chunk of change. *sigh*
We will be coming home on July 1st, but if they get the house we may be coming back sometime in July to help them move
Update on MJ.....she is doing really really well! Learning new things every day and developing her personality....and her temper! I love it though. I have been teary lately when I think about what she has been through. I thought it was kind of ironic on June 19th. We drove to Florida on that day. One year ago, June 19th, 2007 MJ was re-admitted to Lebonheur and that marked the beginning of her hospital stay for 6 months straight. A year ago we didn't know if we would be going on vacation for a long long time and if we ever got to go, would we have our precious daughter with us? The 19th was a joyous day for me, but I couldn't help but cry. God has been so good, and I am so undeserving. Even since we have been home I have not gone to church like I should, but I will start. God has been so gracious and awesome in my life, there is a reason in all of this.
Well, I stayed with MJ while everyone went to eat seafood. I hate to disturb her sleep schedule and she went to sleep between 7 and 8, not exactly the time to be taking her out to a restaurant. I want a happy baby tomorrow, not a crabby baby I can't wait to see her reaction to the beach! I think she will like it, but I have lots of diversional activities for her, just in case she doesn't!
I am going to go check on her and give her some mommy sugars. Those are the best I hope everyone is doing well!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Sunday, June 15, 2008
Wow! Current mood: frisky
I just looked back to see when I last blogged, so that I could fill everyone in on what's been going on in our life since the last post. I was shocked to see that it had been a month and a half! Since, April 30th to be exact. That could only mean one thing, life has been going well and we have been busy.
I started back to work the second week in May! I am very thankful that my boss is understanding with my schedule and allows me to be flexible with it. I didn't realize how much I missed working until I actually went back. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that we were financially able to allow me to stay at home MJ's first year, but the timing was perfect for me to return. I am not usually one to "stay-at-home" and be Suzy Homemaker. I start to get a little cabin fever after a while. Plus, returning to work not only means that we can finally buy some I wants instead of I need's, but it also helps me to see that no matter what is going on in my world, there is ALWAYS someone that is worse off than me. I believe that God called me to be a nurse and when I can't do it, I miss it. It is also good to get out of the house and have time with friends. Yes, I know that I was doing some nursing things with MJ, but I don't consider being a mommy and taking care of my baby as being a nurse.
MJ stays with my mom mostly when I am working, unless Steve is off that day. It is wonderful that mom can do that for us and MJ loves going over there. They have a dog, Sammy, and she loves to play with him. It does her good to go different places and explore the world! We have started taking her to the zoo. We went ahead and bought a membership because each admission is so dang expensive! Several of our friends go all of the time so we try to make play dates out of it. She seems to enjoy it!!
Hmmm.....what else. She had a wonderful birthday! I don't know exactly but there was probably 40 or so people that showed up. It was an awesome celebration of her life!! It feels like she should be 2 or 3 with the amount of stuff that she went through, but alas, she is still my baby However, my baby is turning in to a big girl! She now has her top two teeth and is trying to cut several more. However, we don't have any on the bottom yet!! She has been sitting up for probably close to two months now on her own and she does the military crawl all over the place. Occasionally she gets off of her tummy to crawl like a big girl, but she doesn't do it all of the time. She manages to get in to everything! Luckily, I don't like things cluttered in my house so I don't have too much baby proofing to do. She also said her first word a few weeks before her birthday. It was "MaMa!" She says it all of the time and it melts my heart EVERYTIME! She babbles quite a bit, which is awesome considering she didn't discover her voice until February!!!! She has mastered waving bye bye and is imitating things that we do.
As for her health: she hasn't been "sick" at all, PTL! However, each time that she cuts a tooth, she has throwing up days. Usually they last for 3 days and then she will not throw up again until her teeth are acting up again. The break from throwing up has been nice and when she does throw up, it makes me even more grateful for the days that she doesn't!! Hopefully she is starting to outgrow this reflux crap. Grrr! She is supposed to have a sedated MRI on July 10th to evaluate how her heart and lungs are doing. They will send that information to California and get a date for her next surgery. I am hoping it will be late August or September before we have to go to California. (or longer!!) Her cardiologist did tell us that she will more than likely need to have this surgery and maybe one or two more surgeries before she is an adult (that doesn't count valve replacement surgeries, if she needs them down the road) She will continue to need heart caths every 6 months to a year. We can deal with all of that!
We are leaving for Florida on Thursday! We are staying with my sister the first two days and then we are staying at our beach house from Saturday until the next Saturday, then back to Dee's until the following Tuesday. Almost 2 weeks away from home, I can't wait We got MJ some adorable bathing suits and I can't wait to see her in them. I am curious to see how she will react to the beach. My sis has a giant umbrella that we are going to put MJ under so that she doesn't fry......thanks to her red hair and fair skin
Well, I guess that is an update for now. I hope everyone is doing well & I will try to be more prompt with my updates!! After Florida, that is!