Where did summer go?

I really can't believe this cool weather we have been having and we are enjoying it so much. As I mentioned in the last post, Tate had a pain crisis while we were gone on vacation last weekend but it didn't last long. By Wednesday she was down to just being on the ibuprofen and active as ever. This was the shortest crisis she has ever had. Hopefully there won't be any more now! It is really sad to see this disease limit her from doing things like swimming. It seems we just aren't going to be able to let her swim if it is even a little bit cold. Three of the last 4 crisis have been linked to her getting too cold from swimming. We finally were able to close on our new house on Thursday. We are so glad that the other one is sold and this new one is purchased. There seem to be one thing after another come up with the whole process and we were beginning to wonder if the new buyers of our old house were ever going to get their stuff all together. We are loving the new house and got the garage all organized last weekend. Friday night TJ went roller skating and my friend Roxane and I went out for supper. Scott and Haley stayed home with the girls. They had a great time and spent the evening over at the playground by our house. Saturday TJ went to spend the night with his mom while Scott, Haley, and I cleaned and organized the garage. Later Saturday afternoon Roxane came over to watch the girls and Scott, Haley, and I went to the Tri-State Cage fights at the Lancaster Events Center. We had a great time and saw some good fights. Sunday we got up very early and headed to Kearney to see my grandpa who is in the hospital there. It was nice to see some of my family again including my aunt from Texas who was here visiting. After visiting for a while we drove to Grand Island for my aunts little girls 1st birthday party. The girls had a lot of fun and played so hard they were exhausted. When we got back to Lincoln we got TJ and came home to try and get ready for another week! We are finally getting everything organized and feel like things are starting to slow down a bit. That is a great feeling but won't last long I am sure. We are looking forward to the weekend. My mom and brother will be coming to stay with us Saturday. The state fair is also going on and I think we are planning on spending Friday evening there. We got unlimited ride passes for Scott, Haley, and TJ and I am sure we will have to have some fair goodies! Later today I will try and get some pictures up since I have a bunch from the last couple weeks.

Sunday night

A lot has happened since the last post so I will try to remember everything and bring you all up to date. We did end up getting everything settled with the sale of our house and purchase of the new house. We still haven't closed on either of them but that is scheduled for this Thursday. Can't wait for that to all be over with. We did move all weekend last weekend and got all moved in just in time for school to start. Scott's dad and step mom came down and helped us move. It was a very long and exhausting day. Tuesday we went to TJ's open house at his new middle school and were able to meet most of his teachers. He says he really likes middle school and it's so much different than elementary. Haley is doing great at her new school also and has already met a lot of new friends. Thursday there was an open house at her school so our whole family went and were able to tour the building. Scott never went with us before for the tour so he enjoyed getting to see it. It's amazing how big it is especially after him and I both graduated from such small schools. Friday Scott and TJ went golfing with a friend of ours here in Lincoln and had a great time. TJ has only golfed a couple times and really likes it. He had been asking for the last week to go so when the opportunity came up he was ready to go. While they were gone golfing Haley, the girls, and I went out grocery shopping and packed for our trip to Kansas City to the Great Wolf Lodge that we took this weekend. We left for Kansas early Saturday morning and got there around noon. We had a great time in the water park and also did some miniature golf. Keely has a great time in the water even though it wasn't very warm. Tate had a good time too but kept getting cold. I knew once we got there I should have brought her pain medicine just in case she started to have a pain crisis. Well sure enough she did last night and I didn't have anything other than her ibuprofen. That helped for about 2 hours. About midnight she started crying and complaining about her arms hurting. At 1am we decided we were going to have to take her to the emergency room. They did all the normal stuff they do when we are in Lincoln like start and IV, give fluids, do labs, and chest x ray. Her counts were a little low but had not crashed so bad she needed a blood transfusion so they gave us a prescription for her pain med that we usually give her and sent us on our way. We got back to the motel about 5am. After getting a couple more hours of sleep we got up and around and headed out around 11am. Today Tate has been barley making it until its time for her next dose of pain medicine so I hope that it gets better through the night and we don't end up back at the hospital. Scott and I are exhausted and I can't believe the weekend is already over. We are starting to get a good schedule going in the mornings though. I take TJ to the bus about 6:55am and then come back and get Haley and the girls, then take Haley to school about 7:30am. The girls have been ready for naps by 10am lately so it has been working out good. Then I pick Haley up from school at 3pm and on the way back get TJ from where his bus drops him off at. It's working good for now and hope it just gets better. We just got our Internet going this weekend and it sure is nice to be able to be back online. The house is still a disaster but slowly I am getting things put away. Hope you all had a great weekend.

We are alive!

Betcha all thought we were never going to get this thing updated ever again. I was beginning to wonder the same thing. So much has been going on this past couple weeks its hard for me to even remember what all has happened. First of all my sister decided while she was here she wanted to go look at one of the high schools just for the fun of it since we had tossed around the idea of her coming to school here for more to do and opportunity. Well she liked it so well that she will be living with us now and attending school at Lincoln North Star High School starting next Wednesday! She is very anxious and excited to get started and see if she likes it. We went for registration the other day and when we left she said "I think I am really going to like it here" I was a little surprised she made the huge decision but we are happy to have her here. TJ is still with us and will be for at least the next couple months for sure. What happens after that is still unknown but for the time being we will just enjoy the time we have with him. Him and Haley get along great so far and even argue and bug each other like brother and sister. Getting TJ and Haley too and from two different schools is going to be a challenge but we are getting it all worked out. Tatum and Keely of course love it that Haley will be living with us and want to do everything she does. Last weekend Scott and TJ got to go to a Lincoln Saltdogs baseball game and had a great time. TJ has found he likes to golf so they may try that this weekend if there is time. Things with our house aren't going so well. The appraisal for the house we are selling didn't come up to be what the buyers and us had agreed on so we are renegotiating that purchase agreement and hopefully tomorrow that will be settled so we can continue to move forward. Yesterday my brother came down and spent the day. He went home today. I was able to take him out to lunch and spend some time with just him thanks to Haley watching the girls for me. She has been such a huge help. As some of you know my brother use to live with us also and I really miss getting to spend time with him so it was nice he decided to come down and see us. Especially when its always my idea for him to come down. I didn't even have to bribe him this time! Last Friday we got a 6 year old boy for respite and he is still with us also but he will be leaving tomorrow. He has been very good and a lot of fun but also a very busy and curious 6 year old. He attends a behavioral daycare during the day and it was clear across town so I have had to get use to getting up very early in the mornings this week to have him there by 8am. Hopefully we can all sleep in this weekend and get rested up for school to start next week. IF things get to moving with the house selling and buying process by the weekend we hope to move some stuff this weekend but if not we don't really have any plans. TJ is going to a basketball game with his mentor Saturday but so far that is all we have for plans and it feels great! Tate and Keely are doing great still. They got to swim out in our pool this afternoon with us and loved it. It scares me when Keely is in the pool since she is miss independent and doesn't want anyone to touch her. Needless to say its a little nerve racking when she is in the pool with us with no floats! Tate's been feeling good lately and is growing I think. Not her weight but her height. At the beginning of summer I bought the girls sandals and they wore the same size, now Tate can't wear any of her shoes hardly. Darn it, guess this shoe lovin mom is going to have to get the poor girl some new shoes!

Interesting articles

Tonight I saw an article in the Omaha paper about the feeding program that Tatum was accepted into at the beginning of the year. We consider ourselves lucky to have our insurance approve this very controversial treatment for Tatum but also feel so fortunate that she hasn't actually needed the program yet. When she was evaluated to see if it was something she would benefit from was about the time that she was starting to actually eat better. Even though she was doing better, she had gone back to her old bad habits of not eating so many times before we were almost sure that we would end up going through the program this summer. We are so glad that hasn't been the case because we have had such a great summer. I can't even imagine going to Omaha ever day for 8 weeks of our summer. We haven't been making a huge issue out of meal time lately and sometimes she will do great and others she doesn't. She is maintaining her weight pretty well though. Tonight she was still about 26 1/2 pounds so we are pleased with that. Hope you all enjoy the articles. It was very nice to hear some good things about the program in the article and also get a little better understanding of it. When you have never been around a child with a feeding disorder it is hard to believe that a child would just refuse to eat. I still don't understand it at all and hope that we are on the road to recovery.



http://www.omaha.com/article/20090802/NEWS01/708029907

http://www.omaha.com/article/20090802/NEWS01/708029915