Our crazy, crazy life!!

So, many of you know we were planning on AJ going to PCO (pilot upgrade class) in Altus at the beginning of May. That got changed to the next available date for him, which was August.

Well, this morning as I was bustling b/t the lab, getting vitals taken, and actually seeing the Dr. at my 24 week appointment, I got a voicemail from AJ. I didn't have time to listen to it in the midst of all that, and my phone was quickly dying, so I just turned it off, and decided to recharge it in the car on the way home and call AJ back then. So after my very quick appt. (everything looks/measures/sounds great w/ Tiger!!), I get us all in the car and on the road and plug in my phone and listen to AJ's message which went something like, "Hey, call me cuz there's a lot of stuff I need to discuss with you, so call me ASAP." Immediately I thought, "There's been a drop down and we've gotten an earlier date for PCO." Followed by, "Or he's going on a trip...like, tomorrow, or something and has to let me know he's leaving immediately."

So I called his cell, got voicemail, called the office, got the guy he works with, Jake, who tells me AJ's in a meeting and he'll get him to call me back b/c he knew AJ needed to talk about something with me. So I ask Jake if he knew what it was about...sure enough, drop down earlier PCO date. So, innocently, I ask if he knows the date...suspecting what I'm about to hear: "I think he starts next Wed."

Of course. On the craziest day of the week, when AJ's in the middle of writing his 12 page paper for his master's class and about to do his final next week, just before a 4 day weekend when everything's shut down and we can't get things done, and ticket prices go way up for flights, of course that's when we'd find out we're leaving for over a month in 4-5 days!!! Oh, yes, Murphy... bring it!!

So AJ came home on his lunch break and we frantically discuss all the things we have to get done, and organize and start looking for flights, and both our minds are racing. He went back to work, I had to get the house cleaned up, the lasagna and cake made for community group tonight, and try to figure out what all I have to try to get done before the weekend starts and we can't do anything but pack to get ready for this trip!

My wonderful Dad spent a LONG time helping me search for flight options, combined with different dates and driving options to get in and out of different places, spending as little as possible... Hopefully AJ will get his paperwork and everything all worked out tomorrow early enough that these tix are still available and haven't sky-rocketed price-wise. My amazing parents are also planning to drive separate cars up to Dallas this weekend so we can borrow one for the whole month of July and don't have to rent/deal with not having transportation. I love you, Mom and Daddy!!!!

So, anyway, my mind's still spinning like a top, and I'm about to go sit down and make multiple lists to try to organize the chaos in my brain. At least the cake and lasagna turned out really good!! I just wish more people had been here to help us eat them!!

So all my friends and family in Dallas, OK, and Houston, LET IT BE KNOWN: The Lewton's are coming to town!!! If you'd like to get together, let me know, so we can put it together!! I suppose there's even a remote possibility I could make it to my 10 yr. reunion, but I'll probably only go if AJ can make it, too...don't want to show up by myself...

OK, list time!! Please pray that everything falls into place for us and goes smoothly. THANKS!!

Painting's done and boys are moved in together!

So I got zero pics of the process of the painting, unfortunately, but at least it's done, except for touch ups, and at some point, re-painting the trim, since it's pretty dingy and also has blue (and now yellow) paint all over it. Whew... thank goodness it's done!

The color in the pix is a little brighter yellow than it is in real life, but you can get the general idea here. I've also been doing some shopping on ebay for some accessories and stuff for the room, and have gotten some cute stuff.

I moved Josh's bed to the wall next to the door, which he was excited about, and as you can see, I put his new quilt on his bed.
I wrestled for awhile with this crib to get it together by myself, but finally got it all put together and put against the wall that used to have Josh's bed on it, and the airplane was painted. Sam was not a huge fan of sleeping in a new bed/room, but did eventually settle down and go to sleep after I went back up and rocked him for awhile.
Moved the kitchen to where the train table was. Now the trains and table are downstairs in their playroom.
Moved the dresser to where the kitchen was...I still need to try to combine the boys' clothes into one dresser and closet...yikes! We also need to get new pulls for this dresser, and possibly paint it at some point, since it's not in the best shape. I believe when we get the beds from AJ's dad they'll come with the dresser that matches it, so this one will probably move to the guest room and we'll get rid of the entertainment center in there to make a little more space.
This picture probably shows the color of the paint the most accurately of all of them...I'll have to see if I can get some in the morning and see if they turn out more realistic.
Josh was not asleep here, but could have been...this is a fairly typical pose for him to be in after he goes to sleep.
Aw...isn't he adorable? He will hopefully get used to his new bed pretty quick, though he was up till about 10 or 1030 tonight, and when I did finally go up to get him, he had tossed literally everything out of his crib and I never did find this binky, had to get him a different one. Oh, well...they're both asleep now...

Sam videos from his cardio check up

Here are the videos of Sam right after he woke up. The guy holding him in the second one was one of the nurses who did the sedation. The woman's voice you can hear in the back ground was the other nurse. They were both great with him, and with us having never done anything like this before! You can tell he's still a little loopy and happy and wobbly.

Sam's 12 month cardio check up

OK, Sorry y'all, but the pix loaded in a really weird way and it won't let me move them, so just bear with me and read captions!

So Tues. we had Sam's cardio check up. We'd gotten a phone call telling us to have him stop eating at a certain time, but not why. I was guessing at maybe bloodwork or something? Anyway, when we got there, they sent us off for a chest X-ray, which made me REALLY glad AJ was there, b/c I couldn't go in there with him b/c of Tiger.

Then we all trooped back to Peds Cardio, having been all over the hospital for about an hour and a half by now, and got called back for Sam to get weighed and stuff. The nurse told us they wanted to sedate him for his Echocardiogram. That was a bit of a surprise, and when we told her that they didn't sedate him for his 6 month one, she commented that b/c he was being so good for her, maybe the Dr. would consider not sedating him. But the Dr. came in and told us they had to do some 3D and 4D Echoes and he'd have to be SUPER still, which is not likely for any one year old, much less ours. So they sedated him. OI!! That was a MESS!

First they gave him an oral medication called Chloral hydrate around 1135. The nurses told me it should take about 30 min. or less for him to fall asleep. It's metabolized in the liver and basically affects him like alcohol. AJ took Josh out to play and spend some energy and have a snack, and I sat with Sam. He didn't love the taste of the medicine, but he was ok with it. I was holding him for awhile, and he was all sleepy and laying on my shouldar...and then the meds started kicking in. He was so hilarious!! I sooo wish I'd gotten some video of him... He started playing with his tongue and flirting with the nurses and rolling around and stuff. But 30 min. later, he was still going pretty strong. So around 1205 they gave him a nasal injection of Versed. He didn't like that AT ALL!! I actually was a little afraid he was going to throw up, he kept gagging and coughing at it going down his throat and stuff, and was crying at the same time. But eventually he calmed down a bit. The nurses informed me that it should make him sleep in about 5 min. And about 5 min. later he was much dopier and MUCH grumpier about it!! He was rolling around and freaking out and NOT happy, not happy being held, being on the bed, nothing. I couldn't stop laughing at him b/c he was so upset about being out of control, but it was one of those if I hadn't been laughing I'd have been crying types of things...it was really really stressful, and he's really getting strong!! Anyway, so about 15 min. later he was STILL awake!! Barely...but still fighting really hard, so they brought in the Pentobarbital injection and had to give him a shot in his thigh... OH MAN!! NOT GOOD!! He seriously freaked then. But about 5 min. later he finally fell asleep...WHEW!! Poor kiddo...But they got the echos done...took about 30 or 40 min. maybe? I'm not really sure...but Sam was OUT. And Josh was so good while they were doing all this...and esp. b/c we had to be quiet for most of it.

Anyway, after that, they took Sam over to the same day observation till he woke up. They also did an EKG on him while he was still sleeping. Josh thought that was pretty cool.

After that, Josh and I went and got some lunch and then AJ texted saying that the Dr. was there to talk to us, so Josh and I ran back upstairs, poor kid, and I listened to as much as I could, until Josh insisted again that he needed to go potty RIGHT NOW! So I ran him down the hall to the bathroom and back again, ending up missing another large chunk of the discussion of AJ and the Dr. about stuff. I was kinda irritated and made them repeat it all for me!

Basically my understanding of this rather disjointed conversation was this: Sam's right atrium is still enlarged. They also found a TEENY hole b/t the two upper chambers of his heart, but not big enough either to fix or to be causing the enlargement. He also said Sam's tricuspid valve is shaped and functioning abnormally, but perfectly adequately. So the couple of irregularities they found couldn't be causing the enlargement, and so he's still our little mystery! He's taking 1/2 a baby Asprin a day basically as a precaution, and if he stays the same condition in the next few years, should be able to play sports and all just fine, so that was good to know.

For now they want to keep doing check ups on him. In Sept. he'll be going back in for an EKG so no sedation (yay!), and then probably every 6 mos. again after that.

After we talked to the doctor, it wasn't too much later that Sam finally decided to wake up. He was REALLY groggy still, and wanting to get the heart monitor (on his thumb) off even if it meant chewing it off!! So they put it on his toe...that didn't really help, he kept kicking his feet up and all around till they finally just took it off b/c of course they couldn't get a reading while he was being so crazy! He got some apple juice and water, and did really well with that, so after about 20 min. of him being up they let us leave...around 3:30 or so in the afternoon!! He kept almost drifting off in the car, but refused to actually go to sleep. Finally got him home and he really wanted to get down and crawl around and play, but was still so wobbly and rubbery that he kept falling over, so for awhile we wrestled him on the couch, then put him in the high chair. And finally we just put him in his bed for a little nap, which he needed! He came with us to community group that night and ate a ton, begging brownies from everyone there, and chasing the Rileys' dogs off their bed and stealing their toys! He was still slightly wobbly, but much more coordinated than before. Of course now he's back to his normal self.

So it was a LONG and slightly traumatic day for us, but with pretty good results. We love the nursing staff there, the peds nurses with us for the sedation were awesome! I have a video that I'll post later of one of them with Sam after he woke up a little but was still really loopy.

Josh was kinda tired...this is when they were weighing him and everything before the sedation.
Such a cute little man...and he loves to play with his belly button!
Josh being weird
Sam and AJ were in that room where it says X-ray in use. Josh and I were in the waiting area pictured below... really awesome!!
this was some sort of interactive game
Sam right after waking up
Out cold getting his EKG...wow, that's a lot of wires!!
Josh being really good during the echos.
Sam during the echo...the wires were to monitor his vitals while he was sleeping.
More boy piles of silliness! We sure do love our little mystery boy!!

Sneaky Chef

So my sister Jenny just sent me her Sneaky Chef cookbook and I'm soo excited to start using some of these recipes! So today when I was making out my grocery list I sat down w/ the book and made sure I had things to make some of her "make ahead" purees and mixes for things. There were some kind of uncommon (at least for me!) things on there, like wheat germ. Does anyone know where to find wheat germ in the grocery store?? Because I couldn't find it...

I did get the stuff to make the green and orange purees I think, so I may try to find enough energy to make those and freeze them in 1/4 cup portions to be able to pull out and use when I need to. I'm seriously exhausted just after doing the grocery store, though, so I'm not sure I will. But still hoping I'll be able to get more veggies into all of us, not just the boys!

Thanks again, Jenny!! I'll let y'all know if there's any recipes we just really really enjoy!