Guess it's time to update

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long but really haven't felt much like updating it even though there is plenty to update. We had a great weekend last weekend and both Tj and Haley are feeling much better. Actually, I'm happy to announce that EVERYONE is feeling pretty good this weekend! It's so nice to not be worrying about who needs cold or cough medicine. Last week Tatum's headaches continued and actually got worse on Monday. Tuesday she had a CT scan of her head and also of her sinuses. We found out on Wednesday that she had a really bad sinus infection and also ear infection. She didn't appear to have a sinus infection though, just a little runny nose. Now after being on a new and stronger antibiotic she seems to be doing better and only complained of a headache once since being on the antibiotics. They were not sure what antibiotic to give her since she has broke out all over her body from what they think is an allergic reaction to two different antibiotics. The one they gave her this time seems to be working well and so far no reaction to it. Only bad thing is that it's very expensive but guess that's OK if it works and she isn't allergic to anything in it. They are kind of stumped as to why she would be allergic to the any of them because she gets the penicillin injection monthly and never has had any problem with it. The doctor thinks it might be a colorant in them or something. Wednesday Tj went with his mom to his aunts for Thanksgiving and returned on Saturday. We sure missed him while he was gone and everything was so different not having him around. The girls kept asking when he was coming home and where he was. Haley was even missing him and got bored without him around to be a goofball with. I'm so glad the two of them get along so good but they sure are a little on the crazy side sometimes! Scott, Haley, the girls, and I all spend Thanksgiving here in Lincoln and had our old neighbor over for dinner too so she didn't have to spend it alone. We had a great lunch and it was good catching up with her. Friday morning Scott and I got up at 4:30am and went out shopping. We went to a bunch of different stores and got about all our Christmas shopping done too. I don't know if it's really worth going out and fighting all the people but it was fun. Haley stayed home with the girls so it was nice for Scott and I to get out together. We shopped until around 10am then went home and spent the rest of the day at home. Saturday afternoon after Tj got home we put up Christmas decorations and got the tree up and decorated too. Scott worked outside on lights and did such a great job on them even though he really dislikes putting lights up or even any kind of Christmas decorations. That evening my mom and her boyfriend came and helped with some of the decorating and then we all went out for supper. It was really good food and we had a good time even though she was only here a little while. Today we just finished up some of the tree decorations that the girls can't seem to leave on the tree and relaxed all morning. Haley and Tj made cookies that didn't last long either, they were so good! After the girls naps this afternoon we went to walmart and got some groceries for the week. I can't believe that the kids break is already over and I wish that it would last about another week. I love it when they are home and now I will start the countdown to Christmas break just like they are I'm sure. Three whole weeks then they are off for 2 weeks until after the first of the year. I really can't think of anything else that happened over the last week so hopefully I'm not missing anything. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Time to relex for once, I hope!

The weekend is almost here and everyone in this house couldn't be happier after a very hectic weekend last weekend and busy Monday this week. Tj's game last Sunday night went great and they won again! Now we think he is officially done with football games until next season. He is now getting ready for the conditioning to get started after Thanksgiving. After all of us being out in the cold at Tj's game last Saturday the girls didn't really feel that great the rest of the weekend and we struggled all day Sunday with Keely's breathing. We gave her the breathing treatments every few hours and finally Sunday night after they were not helping I decided I would take her into the ER. By that time she had also come down with a fever. I always hate doing that since it takes so long to get anything done but I was afraid things would just get worse throughout the night. Haley stayed home with Tate and Scott was at Tj's game so I had to take her in by myself. They did a chest x-ray and it showed that she had the start of pneumonia coming on and it was a good thing we got her in when we did. I know that the cold air on Saturday was what made her get so much worse so fast. They started her on a new antibiotic and finally today she does seem to be feeling a bit better. After getting home about midnight we all had to get up early Monday so we could head to Omaha for Tatum and Tj's appointments. For the most part every one's appointments went very well. Tatum first had to get the ultrasound done on her head then to have blood drawn. At her appointment later that morning with the doctor he said that her ultrasound looked great! That was a huge relief since she has been having such bad headaches so often. Her blood work was also pretty good for her being sick with some kind of virus. Her spleen is enlarged but he didn't seem to concerned about it right now. That is something that we have to check often and keep an eye on. IF it ever gets too swollen and quites working they would remove it which isn't something that is terribly uncommon with sickle cell patients. The hematologist said that we will need to do a scan of Tate's head if her headaches continue but we are also suppose to look for things that aren't normal for her. He said to watch for her losing her balance or being out of it sometimes like she doesn't know what is going on. She hasn't had any of that at all so I'm hoping the headaches go away. The only thing that has really changed is that she is getting up tons during the night. She fist doesn't want to go to bed then after getting to sleep she is up sometimes as many as five times a night! That has been over a month now and it is really getting old. I guess we will just wait and see what happens over the next few weeks and if she isn't better we will have her head scanned. We have still been going to the YMCA in the evenings. Tate is loving the daycare so much, she looks forward to it everyday! I wish I could say the same for Keely. She did great the first few days and played but now she has decided that she just wants to cry the whole time. They hold her and she still crys so they come and get me. I haven't got too great of workouts this week because of it either. Then last night we took her and she ran off and played until we left the room. Not even five minutes after I got on the treadmill they came and got me because Keely got so upset she threw up on one of the workers there. They didn't want to keep her after that so Scott stayed in there with her and tried to get her to play. She is so full of energy and usually the one who likes people. I guess I have had her home with me too long and now she doesn't know how to go and play with other kids. I'm not sure what we will do with her but hopefully she will start doing better if we keep taking her there. Haley and Tj have now been sick all week and I have to take both of them to the doctor today to see if we can get them some antibiotics. I think we are just spreading germs around our house from one person to another. Tj has been so healthy the whole winter so far but really is feeling crappy this week. Tj still has plans to go skating tonight. He also got invited to watch the Husker game from Tom Osborne's suite again! So hopefully between times he can get some rest and get to feeling better. Haley was planning on going to a winter wonderland dance at school tomorrow night but after finding out there weren't many people going she decided not to go. She must really like hanging out at home with us I guess! Scott, the girls, and I have plans to go out for supper and then to Chuck E. Cheese for the girls to get out and play for a while.

I also want to share some excitement that we had this week. When we met Keely for the first time we also got the chance to meet her birth mother. I will call her K. Since meeting her that day we have received one very nice letter from her and then we never heard anything and neither had the worker at the agency. We have continued to send letters and pictures once in a while even though we never knew if K would ever let anyone know where she was so they could give her the letters and pictures. We always think about her and also Keely's two siblings that K is raising alone. I had just sent new pictures of Keely and a letter for her about a month ago. I got a email back from the worker that she would keep them on file and that she hadn't heard from her birth mother still. Then this week I got another email that her birth mother had contacted the agency and is doing good! After giving birth to Keely the agency helped her get an apartment. Well she had a fire at her apartment and lost all the pictures she had of Keely from when she was a baby. So we are going to make her a new album for Christmas of Keely from the time we got her until now. I decided to write to the agency again the other day to see if there was any items that we could send that would help her get back on her feet and into another apartment. She wrote back and said that K called the agency again and said she had a letter and new pictures of the kids for us so we are very excited about getting those. She also stated that she had ran into Keely's birth father's mom and she is still upset about the adoption. We knew in the beginning she was upset about it and she had even talked with the agency but nobody had heard from her since then. I guess she did call the agency again this week but the worker hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet. The worker asked if we would be open to sending birth grandmother pics and letters too to hopefully make her feel more at ease about the adoption of her granddaughter. We are fine with that and glad they want to know about her. We also hope to get some information about Keely's birth father since we know nothing about him at all. The worker at the agency is going to be meeting with K sometime and hopefully that we will be able to stay in contact with her now more frequently through the agency. This is such a huge relief for us to know that she is doing OK and the kids are too. We hope everyone has a great weekend and Thanks so much for reading our blog! It finally made 1000 hits!

Ever changing plans

Everything we had planned for the weekend all changed Thursday evening. We were planning on going out for supper Thursday night after being doing some shopping at the mall. When we got to the car I had a message from Tj's coach that they had set up a game for the team to play Sunday night and we were suppose to be at the field at 5:30pm and that was only a half hour away. So we rushed to the field so Tj could check out his stuff again and practice a bit. Well by the time they got their stuff checked back out they had 4 games scheduled over the weekend all in Omaha! So Friday night Scott and Tj went to Omaha for his game and it didn't get started until 9:30pm and they got home late. Then Saturday morning all of us got up early and headed back to Omaha for his second game at 11:45am. These games they scheduled were all star games and he and 4 other boys were chose from the Lincoln team to play with some players from the Omaha team. They won both Friday and Saturday's games by a long ways. When we got back to town Saturday afternoon everyone relaxed a bit then had to go to Tj's step performance that night. It was a lot of fun and neat to see all levels perform with his middle school team, some high school teams, and two college teams. When we all got home we were exhausted and the girls and I went straight to bed. Today Tj was suppose to have a game at 11:45am then again at 3:30pm. After the last two days and the girls not feeling good I decided we would stay home so Scott and Tj went by themselves. When they got to the field they found out that the two teams that they were suppose to play today had forfeited! So after the trophy presentation Scott, Tj, and 5 other boys from Omaha came back to Lincoln to prepare for another game that is set to be tonight at 7pm. Scott dropped all the boys off at the sports complex where the game will be tonight and they have spent the afternoon there and will have supper. Scott said the drive back to Lincoln with six 11 and 12 year olds was very interesting and there was never a dull moment. Haley ended up using Tj's hockey ticket Friday night and had a blast. The girls and I just stayed home and rested. While we were home Tate broke out in a rash all over her body and itching. I called the doctor and they thought it was a reaction to the antibiotics that she had been prescribed a couple days earlier and we were suppose to discontinue them. After some benadryl she was fine. Saturday night again she broke out all over her legs but it wasn't nearly as bad as Friday night when it was all over her body. Then again today she broke out on her face with the rash and itching. I am not convinced that it's from the antibiotics since we haven't been giving them to her and she still is breaking out. The doctor now thinks maybe it's viral hives or something. But the same thing has happened before when she was on another antibiotic last year. Since she gets penicillin shots monthly they aren't sure why she doesn't have a reaction to that but is to these others. Her headaches are continuing to get worse and more frequent so hopefully we will get something figured out tomorrow at her appointment in Omaha. Keely is so stuffed up and still has tons of green junk coming out her nose and watery eyes even after one round of antibiotics. We have started doing her nebulizer treatments every few hours and it is helping loosen some junk up. Hopefully that will get her cleared up soon. I got my first allergy shot on Friday and if I hadn't seem the needle and medicine I wouldn't have even known I ever got a shot. I didn't even feel the slightest poke at all. It really was weird! But I am thankful it doesn't hurt especially since I will be getting them weekly for a long time. We feel terrible that we missed out on the two birthday parties we were suppose to go to today but also know that everyone else doesn't want whatever it is that we have and can't seem to get rid of. After this weekend I think I am ready for the week to begin for once!

Random updates

This week is actually going by much faster than I anticipated it would so that is a plus! We joined the YMCA this week and Haley and I have been going every night so far. Last night Tj went with us too and swam while we worked out. Keely stayed home with Scott and I figured Tatum wouldn't want to go since Keely wasn't but she was very excited to still go, even by herself. She doesn't seem to play with anyone really but I know it does her good to be out and around other kids. The night her and Keely went they just stuck together the whole time and I'm hoping they start to play with new friends and figure out that they don't have to stay together when they are there. It is so strange to me that a child could be so excited to go to daycare but since we have started going Tatum ask about a dozen times a day if it's time to go to daycare. I guess since I went all the time as a kid and hated going it just surprises me. Guess it must be because it's something new to the girls, but thankful they enjoy it. They can be there up to two hours a day and hey, who wouldn't want to get 2 hours of free daycare each day! It's a nice break and gives me time to actually relax a bit. Friday Tj is going to another Lincoln Star's hockey game with our friend and Haley is going to babysit her youngest son while they go to the hockey game. It's nice that she has been able to do a little babysitting for her and earn some extra money. Saturday we will be watching the Nebraska game I am sure. Tj has another step performance on Saturday night at Wesleyan and there will also be high school and college step teams performing so it should be a lot of fun to see. Sunday we have a full day of birthday parties planned. Scott's little brother is having a birthday party Saturday and also our friends little girl is turning one tomorrow so they are having her party later Sunday afternoon also. Already sounds like it's going to be a busy weekend.

I think I have mentioned before that I have been having a lot of problems with my sinuses and did finally have a scan done on them. It just showed that I had acute sinus infection and that was after about a month of being on different antibiotics. So the specialist put me on a very strong antibiotic again. I also went in for allergy testing last Friday and that reveled that I have an allergy to dust mites, and a couple different grasses. They now believe that a lot of my sinus problems are coming from these allergies. Since the dust mites are virtually impossible to stay away from they suggested that I start doing allergy shots and I agreed that was what we would do for treatment. It is called immunotherapy and I will be getting shots for 3-5 years. Starting out I have to go in weekly for these shots then after 3-4 months and they have determined that I have reached a maintenance phase Scott and I will be trained to give me these shots ourselves so I don't have to keep going into the clinic weekly. That will be very helpful for my schedule! These maintenance shots may not be weekly later on but will be at least every other week for 3-5 years. I am suppose to see an improvement in my symptoms in 6 months to a year so I am trying to be optimistic. The scan also showed that I have a deviated septum which I have no idea how I got but he said most likely from trauma to my nose at some time. With that my right nostril has some obstruction so that could be another cause of all the congestion and reoccurring sinus infections. IF we don't see improvement after a while from the allergy shots then I will have surgery to fix the deviated septum but the doctor doesn't think that will be necessary. Lets hope not. I think if that was the main cause of my problems I would have been having trouble long ago and all this started a little over a year ago. I go for my first shot on Friday and also have been started on another round of antibiotics since Scott and I both have strep throat and my congestion started coming back within 4 days of being off my last antibiotics. I am also taking prednisone to help with all the inflammation I keep getting in my sinuses and that is one of the most effective things I have ever taken and it helps me breath. I forgot how good it felt to be able to breath out of my nose and not be all stuffed up, it's a great feeling! The doctor things I haven't been able to fully get over everything from all the factors I talked about like the deviated septum, allergy, and also getting the H1N1 really brought my body down and it's not recovering very quickly.

I have wrote on here before about Tatum going to the hematologist twice a year for a check up for her sickle cell. They also do a transcranial doppler which is an ultrasound that checks the blood flow in her head to make sure she isn't at risk of stroke from sickled red blood cells blocking oxygen from her brain. Well we were scheduled to go back for that check up December 10th. Well, Tatum has continued to have headaches almost on a daily basis since she had the H1N1 that was about a month ago. There are days that she will complain of headaches several times a day and even wakes up crying in the night complaining of her head hurting. But then the next day she might be fine and not have a headache for a day and sometimes even longer. There have for sure been more days with headaches than not though and I just continue to give her ibuprofen for them and it helps. Then when she got up yesterday crying first thing and wanting to be help all morning it seemed to me that these headaches shouldn't be happening so much so I talked to our pediatrician and he talked to he hematologist to see what he thought. He thought that we should do the scan earlier than in December since it could actually be related to her sickle cell. When Tate was in the hospital they really thought it was just left over from the H1N1 so I was blaming it on that. Plus, I really didn't know that she could be having a problem with her sickle cell with only her head hurting, its always her arms or legs hurting when there is a problem. So now we go to Omaha Monday. Which works out great because Tj also has an appointment in Omaha on Monday. Now we will just have to leave a little earlier since Tate's ultrasound is at 8:30am then we will get blood drawn. Tj's appointment is at 10am at a different hospital so we will go there and then head back to where Tate's appointments were and meet with the doctor to go over the ultrasound and blood work. Going to be a busy morning but glad we can get it all done in one day! I am hoping nothing shows up and all her blood work is good like it always has and hope the headaches just quit coming back.

Report cards came out last week for the big kids and Scott and I could not be so proud of them both! From the midterm report Tj improved a lot and is doing so good. Haley has always struggled a little in school but since the move she is doing better than ever and had all A's and B's with the exception of math and that was a C but we are very happy with that considering she struggled to even pass math last year. For all their hard work we want to reward them and Tj is planning on getting his hair braided hopefully this weekend! He has been growing it for quite a while now with the goal of being able to get it braided. Haley hasn't said what she wants but probably just wants money so she can get what she wants. It's amazing how less hectic things are when they are doing good in school and know what is expected of them here at home and at school. Well if any of you are still reading I hope that you have a great weekend!

Monday again

Here are a couple pictures from Tate and Tj's party that I never got posted and thought you might like to see.

What a great weekend it was here! Great weather, Huskers won, and everyone had a great time this weekend. Last week I really can't even remember what all happened other than Keely was sick with pink eye and yucky ears and nose. She is better now and ornery as ever! Thankfully nobody else has got the pink eye like I thought we would. Oh, and I almost forgot the craziest part of the week. I think it was Tuesday the girls and I were going to goto the zoo with a friend of ours. While we were out Scott wrote and said that his company, BNSF was bought by Berkshire Hathaway. I asked how it was going to affect him and he wasn't sure. Then he text and said that they just had a meeting and were told about the sale. I of course wanted to know what they said and how are we going to be affected. He proceeded to tell me that he would be out of a job by December! I said "You better be joking!" After a while he finally told me it was a joke and that he shouldn't really be affected. In fact it might even be a good thing for the company. So I was very irritated with him that he pulled such a prank that really wasn't too funny to me. Later that night he went to Jui Jitsu. It usually gets over about 5:30. He called me at 5 and told me I had to come get him. I was thinking oh great I suppose he got hurt since he is really accident prone. But no he tells me that our car was getting towed and I had to come get him to go get it. Since he pulled a prank earlier in the day I thought it was a joke again and said yea right! But it was really true! He had parked in a no parking spot and when he went to get a drink during class he looked out the window to see our car on a tow truck. He went running out and told the guys it was his car. Since they already had it off the ground they couldn't just take it off and give it to him. They had to charge him the 120.00 and let him go to and ATM and get cash then they took it down for him and let him go one his way. Needless to say it was a very stressful day and I was not too pleased with him.Thank goodness we don't have those kind of days all the time. Friday evening Scott's mom came to spend time with the girls and I think they had a lot of fun hanging out at home, watching Dora, and going to the park. While she was here with the girls Scott and I took Haley and her friend to the movies, went and picked up Tj's friend, took them to skating, then went on a dinner date all by ourselves! It was great and we got to try a new Chinese restaurant here in town. It was so good and now we have finally found a good Chinese buffet here in Lincoln that we love. They had crab legs, and tons of them. Scott and I both love crab legs but they don't have them that many places where they are all you can eat. After we got done Scott took me home and I got the girls ready for bed and he went and got Haley from the movies. Later Scott and Haley went and got Tj and his friend from skating. Tj's friend was suppose to stay the night but decided he didn't want to because of our dogs. Tj had told him how hyper they are and he thought they would bite him. Hopefully he can come over and spend the day one of these days so he can get use to them and figure out that they won't bite him. Saturday morning everyone slept in a little bit. Tj had practice at 10am till noon then him and Scott went golfing for the afternoon. The girls spent the morning with Scott's mom and Haley and I went and got some groceries. Everyone had lunch together and then Scott and Tj left. The rest of us took naps. I hated taking a nap on such a nice day but Scott and I hadn't been feeling good and all I really felt like doing was sleeping. When we all got up from napping Scott's mom headed home. We of course watched the game Saturday night and were very pleasantly surprised that we played pretty good AND won! It was a very lazy night for everyone. Sunday Tj had a game at 3:30 so he had to be at the field in Omaha at 2pm for pre game practice. We dropped him off and went to a couple of the malls in Omaha to look for something Scott had been looking for and before we knew it it was time to head back to the game. Tj's team played hard but the other team was much larger and beat them pretty bad. Today they will check in all their uniforms and be done with games. November 30th they will start winter conditioning and that will be four days a week for an hour each day. It's not required that they do it but is an option and Tj is excited to get started with weight training and position training. Scott is still doing Jui Jitsu 2-3 days a week and I think Haley and I are going to start going to the YMCA by our house a few days a week. We took a tour of it one day last week and the girls loved the daycare they have there for them. That was a good sign because Tatum use to sometime throw a fit when we would take her to the YMCA daycare. Hopefully they both like it and give Haley and I some time to try and get in a little better shape before the holidays come. Speaking of holidays I can't believe that Christmas is in only about a month! I need to get busy that's for sure. Hope everyone is enjoying this warm weather we are having here in November.