Sleepovers & Seagulls

Friday night Katherine got to invite a couple of friends over for a sleepover. All the girls were very well behaved and had lots of fun. They got to play outside, in the playroom, watch a Barbie movie, and camp out in their sleeping bags. I even got the girls to go to bed by 10:30pm, not too bad. Though at 2:00am, Katherine came to our room to tell us she no longer wanted to sleep on the floor and wanted to go sleep in her bed.

Sunday we went down to the beach with 3 other families to celebrate on of the boy's 3rd birthday. It was the perfect day at the beach with great friends. The kids love the beach and had so much fun sharing it with their friends. They packed a nice picnic lunch for everyone to enjoy. 

Colin ready to roll at 7:00am, we weren't leaving for 2 more hours!

Matt, just please buy me one of these! 

Colin - controller of all the sand buckets

Katherine running around the beach

Colin chasing the seagulls, please don't try to carry him away

Some of the kids playing in the water. There were 10 of them all together.

The "boys"

The "girls"

Colin does loves the beach so much!

9 years and counting! Happy Anniversary.

May 31st, Matt and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary.  How fast 9 years have gone! We have had so many great times, hard days, funny moments, and days I never waned to end. If possible, I love him now more than ever. Though everything, Matt is my best friend, my partner, my rock, my jester (he always makes me laugh), most importantly, the father of my two wonderful children. It's been  great ride so far, can't wait to see what the next 50 years bring us. 

Since our anniversary was on a Thursday night, we waited until Saturday to really celebrate. We were lucky and Matt's parents watched the kids for the afternoon and night, so we took a little day trip.. just the two of us. 

We went up to Texas A&M, where we went to college, where we met, where it all began. A&M was in the NCAA Baseball Regionals, so we got tickets to the game and a hotel so we can enjoy the game and go out to the bars afterwards.  It was hot when we first got there, but it cooled down nicely. Even though we lost the game, we had a great time. We will take the kids there next spring when the season starts off again. It has a nice playground in the outfield, where you can see the game and a nice big lawn section for the kids to run around. 

After then game, we relived our youth at Northgate (which is a row of 10 or so bars). I was very impressed I lasted until midnight :) The next morning we got up and went to the Bonfire Memorial. Bonfire was close and dear to my heart as I worked on it the first two years at A&M.  Bonfire was 109 feet tall using over 8,000 logs that the students cut down themselves. Tragically in 1999, Bonfire collapsed while students were working on it and killed 12 Aggies, one a grew up with. It is always an emotional time to revisit the polo fields where I made so many friends and so many great memories and know the destruction and the lives lost there.  

Each gateway is carved on the inside with the picture of the student and sayings or letters from their family. Each one faces the direction of their hometown.

After Bonfire memorial, we went and had lunch at one of our favorite places, then headed to pick up the kids. I was glad to see them. It's nice to get away just Matt and I but it is always great to have my kids back with me.

Memorial Day Weekend and Katherine's Kindergarten Graduation

 

We had a great holiday weekend. Much needed time off and fun in the sun after having Colin's heart cath a week before. We got to spend great quality time with friends and family, go fishing, swim in the pool, and even indulge in some adult beverages and SNO-CONES! 

Friday night we had friends over, the kids played all night while the adults got to visit. The family moved on Sunday to Fort Worth area, so it was one last hu-rah before they moved away. We got to have so much fun, we didn't realize it was 1am before long. The girls fell asleep in our bed watching a movie, but not the boys. Colin and his friend were still running around at 1:00am. Boys will be boys.

Saturday we went to a family bbq out in the country. We all love going out to their property. It has a nice size pond to fish and swim in (we didn't let the kids swim since Colin's restrictions had not been lifted from the heart cath). But they loved riding the tractor and the golf cart around the property. Colin caught NINE fish, he was having a blast. Katherine's favorite part was driving the golf cart and making sno-cones. She liked it so much, the next day we went and bought the kids their own sno-cone maker!

Sunday we had a nice quite day around the house. My parents took the kids to the movies while Matt and I ran some errands. Monday we had a BBQ with my family and went swimming. Most importantly Matt and Katherine got up early in the morning and put out our American Flags and Matt taught Katherine the true meaning on Memorial Day. The kids loved going to the pool and swimming.

Katherine's Kindergarten Graduation
Katherine graduated Kindergarten yesterday, can't believe she is going to be a first grader, where has the time gone? I am so proud of her. She had a great first year of "real school". She is reading so well and is doing well in math. It is amazing watching her grow the past year. She is so smart, inquisitive, creative, and loves school. They had a great ceremony with each kid walking across the stage and then they sang all the parents a song they worked hard. Afterwards we went to her classroom and took pictures and then I took Katherine out just the two of us for a special treat, her favorite.. soft pretzels and slushies :)
We had such a great time in Kindergarten with her class projects and learning on how read and count to 100, can't wait to see what first grade brings us!

Heart Cath Findings

Thank you all so much for praying for Colin, this means so much to me that Colin has a large group of people who love and care for him so much! Proud to say that we are home after Colin's heart cath. We got to the hospital at 6:45am and was released at 7:30pm last night.. what a LONG day!

After checking in, many doctors came to look at Colin. He was so good for each of them and after each one, he would gather up his toys and say "We go home now, I done?" Poor sweet child had no idea what we were really there for. At 8:30am, we gave Colin some sleepy medicine to relax him, boy it did the trick, he was very very relaxed. I have to admit I cried seeing him that way, I don't know why, but it just breaks my heart to see him so drugged up. Then came time for the doctors to take him back. more kisses, hugs, and tears.

Waiting for the doctors to come see us, in a good mood so far

After the sleepy medicine took effect. 

They took him back a little after 9am and he was done with the cath at 12:30pm.  A lot of that time is getting him under, getting the IV and lines in. We got to see him in recovery at 1:30pm. The requirement to go home was to eat and keep it down. He drank 6 boxes of apple juice and had some pizza and chicken strips, kept it down, so we were on our way out!

They put a cath in his groin and in his neck so they could get good views from all angles of his heart.

SO THE BIG NEWS- WHAT THE CATH WAS ALL ABOUT
 - Colin is a candidate for the Fontan surgery (GREAT NEWS.. this was my biggest fear is that he would not qualify for the last surgery)
- The heart cath doctor felt that Colin could wait 6 months to a year for the fontan and will make that recommendation to the team. Our cardiologist thought it would be about 2 months from now. But the cath doctor thinks Colin's heart looks so good that he could wait to get a little bigger.
- It will be up to his surgical team to decide on when the next surgery will be, we should hear a timeline in the next few weeks.
 - Colin's oxygen saturation's were really good, high 80's.
- All measurements and pressure of his heart looked good.
- They did not have to balloon his pulmonary artery like they thought they would have to , the blood flow looked fine enough.
- They had to coil one collateral vessel. This means Colin's body formed a collateral vessel to help with his poor blood flow, but it was competing with his other ones where they want the blood to flow, so they coiled it (put a metal block so the blood will not flow through it). It is very common with children with heart defects, so this was not a surprised that he needed one coiled.

SO THE NEXT STEP.... we wait to hear from surgical scheduling on when the Fontan will be. Looks like 2 months to a year is the possibility now depending on what the team thinks after the results from the cath.

Reading a book with daddy in recovery

Eating ice cream for breakfast the next morning

Heart Cath Monday, Proper sendoff party, & Mother's Day

First and foremost, Colin's heart cath is scheduled for this Monday May 21st at 8:30am at Texas Children's hospital. Please pray all goes well and the heart cath results show that he is a candidate for the 3rd surgery and they find no other problems (besides only having half a heart :)

I will post updates the blog & Facebook once we have them. The procedure should take 3-5 hours, then 6 hours in recovery. We might get to go home or we might have to stay the night. I am already a nervous wreck. Plus all four of us just got over the stomach flu. I called the hospital to make sure Colin was still fine to go on with the procedure since he had it last week. They said it was still good to go since he is done with being sick. I pray over the weekend, we can all stay well. Needless to say, this will be a low key weekend. 

Last weekend we had so much fun, that it will be fine to take it easy this weekend. Saturday night we had a going away party for our friends who are moving to DFW area. They are going to be missed greatly.. we promise to come visit!! Katherine has been so upset that they are leaving, so we had to give them a proper sendoff. The kids loved playing in the backyard. It was a great evening with friends.

 It's all fun and games until kids attack!!! And yes that's Colin in the spiderman mask beating up everyone.

 Sunday was Mother's day.  I woke up to beautiful flowers and cards. Katherine made a whole bunch of stuff from school. One thing was a book about her & me. It was very cute and creative. Like drawing our favorite food (she put both of ours as macaroni), our favorite colors, and what she likes to do best with her mommy, which is going to the zoo. The only sad thing was that she listed my age as 48.. OUCH!!! Guess she can't be perfect!

I got to pick what I wanted to do for the day, so of course I picked going to the beach. It was a beautiful day, the water is still a little too cold to get into, but I love just hanging out on the sand and playing. The kids did get in up to the knees. Me.. no thanks, I like it when it is warmer water!

On the way home, we got ice cream. Katherine ate her whole cone, Colin on the other hand was so tired, he kept falling asleep WHILE eating it. It was so funny I had to video it. He finally dosed off completely and Matt and I finished the ice cream cone. When we got home, 45 minutes later, Colin woke up and looked all around his seat. I asked what he was looking for and he said "My ice cream, where did it go mommy?" Ha ha ha ha

Katherine said it was the best mother's day yet, I just might have to agree with her. I even got to come home and take a nap! Mother's Day rocked!!!