Thesaurus reading and pondering life while swinging

We were visiting my parents in Spartanburg on Saturday. Cameron always asks his nanna to read to him at night. This time, he picks an old thesaurus. Nanna asks if he even knows what one is. Well of course he tells her exactly what it is. He thoroughly enjoys learning!






Another story:

While listening from inside the house, I overheard a deep conversation that my children were having. They were swinging, and Reagan asks Cameron a few questions about God. Here is how the conversation went:

R- Is God always with us Cameron?
C- Yes.
R- Why?
C- Because we are Christians.
R- No, we are Carolinas.
C- No, we are Christians!
R- What are Christians?
C- That means we believe in Jesus and love Him and God.
R- Ooh, I do love them. Especially Jesus, he died for us.
C- Yeah, me too.

Don't ya love it!

Absolutely nothing to post!

God is good! When I can honestly say I have nothing to post, that really means life is as "regular" as it gets!

Labs- two good levels, two weeks in a row.

Meds- so far so good. Still praying that the azithromax will keep the sickness away for a while.

School- fun and great reports. Reagan will have her first kindergarten play date Friday and she is super excited. Cam stayed out Friday because there was a crazy stomach bug going around. NINE children in his classroom got it! We "skipped" school and had a fun day together. And no stomach bug to boot!

Rick- about to start working lots of hours for the next few weeks so we will be missing him.

Me- working a few hours, starting back with Family Connection of SC, and volunteering with Donate Life/LifePoint this week. And always busy making everyone's life easier. Isn't that what all moms do??

Everthing else is great too- speech, soccer, dance, CCD/church, life. I always know that anything can happen, especially with little Missy. But for today, we are "normal."

We couldn't be happier.

Who picks black????

At school, Reagan was asked to wear her favorite color today. Now, most every girl would pick pink. Usually a given. Even Reagan loves pink and purple but if you ask her what her favorite color is, hands down every time it will be black!

Who picks black??? I know she does not like it for its slimming feature! She even wanted to paint her walls black but settled for pink and purple.

She is so funny, you never know what she is thinking!

Happy Friday everyone!

A picture from my phone. My crackberry takes the fuzziest pictures- sorry!

A season to dread- but not for HER!

I really do dread Fall and Winter. While I love the crispness that fall brings (at some point), the fun fall activities, the awesome holidays that winter has, and even the occasional snow fall, I really dread the sickness that comes. I actually feel like I just hold my breath and wait for summer to come again.

But not my children, especially Reagan for some reason. Maybe they were talking about it in school? She has been asking every day if it is fall yet. Finally, we googled it because I knew that it was coming up but it was not on my calendar. I told her that it was the first official day of Fall on Tuesday. Yesterday we picked Cameron up from school and immediately started homework. We had opened the windows in the dining room and Reagan began to scoot a heavy chair across the floor. She pushed it all the way to the window, climbed up like she was on a mission, and propped her feet up on the window sill. Cameron and I looked at each other and laughed. When we asked her what she was doing, she leaned up and said

"Mom, it's fall. I am watching the leaves fall to the ground!"

No cares, especially that there were no leaves falling (okay one or two maybe)or that it was 98 degrees.

She sat there and watched for a long while, smiling the whole time.

Maybe Fall is not so bad after all, not yet. It sure made her happy!

Only 14 hours of school and then...

SICK! I Really thought that she would make it further into the year, maybe even the whole week. I don't even think that anyone has been sick in her class yet, but who knows where she got it from.She spiked a fever on Thursday night so we went to our favorite pediatrician the next morning. I don't think that we have been into the office for a sick visit for two WHOLE months (maybe a record). Another reason I love summer.

She was mad because she could not go to school on Friday. She even asked if she could go to school and not touch anyone and wash her hands a lot. She is too smart! Dr. Todd could not find anything wrong, so we must have caught something in the early brewing stages. A few spikes later, and we started the antibiotic. We have started discussions about how to deal with sickness this winter. Hopefully we can come with something new that can keep her in school a little longer than 10 hours!

Saturday afternoon she was feeling much better. Needless to say our anniversary plans turned into a fun night at home. 9/11 was our TEN year anniversary! The children helped me find old pics of their mom and dad together while Rick worked all day. They made signs for the "restaurant" that was at our house. The restaurant was named TEN. They also made menus and were our waiter and waitress for the night. Still a night to remember, we all enjoyed it.

This past week Reagan started dance class again. She was so excited to see her same teacher and couldn't wait to go back again today.

Cameron is enjoying second grade and starts soccer with practice tomorrow. He is REALLY excited about it this year!

I will post pics later, when I have a little more time. We were at the beach house for Labor Day and took some family pictures.

First Day of Kindergarten- Let the Tears Roll!

I really thought that I was nothing more than excited for Reagan to attend her sweet little kindergarten class. I have not shed a tear, okay until Monday.

Monday was Parent/Teacher night- no kiddos. Rick stayed home with the kids and I attended. The teacher was going over the handbook and we got to the "sick" section. You know, don't bring your kids to school with....

Then she looks at me and asks if I will share a few words. I started out by saying my name, my daughter's name, and then LOST IT! Yes, tears flowing! Embarrassing!!! I did manage to pull it together (a little) enough to finish a quick story. A few parents came up to me laughing, telling me they had been crying all afternoon about their child starting school, with no problems at all.

I guess that I had suppressed feelings about my baby starting school, to say the least. Not that I am sad about her growing up, well not totally. I think I always knew that she would get her new heart, I just never pictured anything else in the future. I never let myself plan for the future, not even buy clothes for next season. It felt like I was being presumptuous. We all just live happily in the moment. And look where we are- THE FUTURE! I am so proud of her and the things that she has accomplished. We are so happy that she is so happy.

Yesterday was open house. Rick and I attended with Reagan to officially meet the teachers. She was so excited during her scavenger hunt and playing in the new room. She saw pictures of herself everywhere and really liked it.

She is beginning to enjoy learning. She wants to sound out almost every word now and asks what letter it starts with. She gets it right most of the time!

Today is the first official day of school for her. She will only be there for 2 hours. I will download pictures later today.

Wish her luck today! I don't think that she will need it though! Me on the other hand...Ugh! I am crying now!

School Time and Wacky Labs

We have been super busy getting into the school groove and leaving summer behind. Of course, we can't have a typical week leading up to the first day!

Cameron, did have a normal start and is in the swing of things. He really likes his new teacher and classmates. He knew all of them and a few are his really good friends. He is excited about the math that she has planned for them!

Last week, Reagan had her yearly transplant visit. While everything looked great, her labs that measure the rejection meds that she takes were very low. I was nervous because the labs had not been checked in a month so there is no way to tell how long it was that low. When the levels are low, the body will start to notice the foreign heart and start attacking it. We bumped up her meds and rechecked on Friday, and they went even lower! Needless to say, I was a nervous nelly this weekend! The last time she was that low was right after transplant when she started to reject. Moms remember numbers, especially important ones even if it was four years ago! So we gave her a larger dose, and Monday the labs seemed to be much better. We will recheck again this Thursday to see if they stay in the range that we like.

Really, HLHS (syndrome with her old heart) has it's own problems, but transplant is an entirely different set of problems. It is nice for me that we have to keep a closer check than we did with the old heart. I got a little too comfortable after that second surgery when she was a baby. Transplant- no- never comfortable but totally okay where we are.

School was the last thing on our minds Monday, but it was time to register for kindergarten. Reagan went with me to get registered and we were able to see her new teacher. She seems like a sweet woman that will love my baby! Reagan was very comfortable there and I am sure she will love it. She started to play with a group of girls while I filled out paperwork. I looked up a few minutes later, and she had them following her leading a game of follow the leader. Then she started crawling and they copied! It was a funny sight. Yes, I think she will be just fine next week.

She started speech again today. We have not been since November. I guess after years of therapy, both mom and child were tired. She had an evaluation and did really well. In fact, we may focus on speech a little less and more on eating issues. It is time for her to get some tough love and hopefully they can help nudge her. She is scared to swallow most foods. She is tasting new foodsso much more now, and even knows when she is hungry.

I guess all in all it has been a good but busy week. I guess when soccer and dance start, it will be even busier! I am not complaining. I love that they are healthy enough to do the things that they do. Me, hum, I guess I can rest sometime!

Hope everyone enjoys the week!