Hi Ho -its off the hospital we go

Friday, Kayden had to go back to the children's hospital for the testing on her ears.The rain was horrible and I never thought we were going to make it. It should have taken me 30 minutes but it ended up taking me an hour and a half ! The final verdict was the right ear is fine but the left ear has a mild hearing loss. Not a nerve issue possible because of the shape of her inner ear or because of fluid, but because of the shape they cant see in well enough to see her ear to know so we wait and watch and see what happens !

I took Teresa on Saturday yo get her hair fix (still from the damagethis summer from her mom) and then sunday we did senior pics ! Kinda scarey to see her in a cap and gown.I gave her an early graduation present which was a silver necklace that has 3 rings (mother, daughter, friend) and the card that came with it said something like " a daughter is a little girl who grows up to be your friend" and then something about when you wear it remember what you mean to me. she started crying - it touched me that my necklace meant so much. I was hoping it would and I was glad it did.

We went to a picnic at the park this weekend with some friends ! It was so nice out and so relaxing - we never get to relax anymore. We definitly have to do it more often.

I tried to add some of Teresa's graduation pics but again cant add pictures ! ARGH ! I will try again later ! And on the note of things that bug me .... I have when people dont RSVP !!! I am trying to do a get together for Roberts birthday/ thank you to those who helped with his heart attack and cant get people to respond if they are coming. Makes it hard to get food when you dont know how many are eating :)

Update......

Where do I begin......

Last week my sister came to visit. I was so glad to have re-enforcements so I could sleep ! Little did i know how bad I would need them. I went to lunch for a co workers bday, and felt like I ate too much. by the time I went home I felt sick to my tummy and made a b-line for the toliet (do not pass go, do not collect $200 kind of b-line). I had horrible chills and even with a sweater and 4 blankets I was still cold. Caitlin took my temp and it was almost 102. I tried to stay away for the baby incase it was flu but I think it was food poisoning .Robert had to work and Caitlin (my hero) put on the baby carrier, announcing "this is what it is like being pregnant" and made herself dinner and ate all while taking care of Kayden so I could rest. I was in no shape to take care of anyone. Caitlin asked if she could have coke, I replied "you are being so good you can have anything but a horse" (remember she asked santa for one). then she asked "can I have choc cake" I replied "you can have anything but a horse". My sister called to tell me she was going out with a friend and then found out I was sick and said she would come back for a couple of hours. she took the baby. then my brother brought teresa home 9who was staying with my mom while she had her wisdon teeth out) since teresa was there, Lori went out and I went to sleep only to wake up and barely get to the bathroom throwing up ! Teresa sent me to bed and cleaned it up. Told Caitlin to take care of me and she took Kayden until Lori got home at 1am. The rest of the week I was scared to eat much. I think I lost a few pounds !

I got a thank you card from Jennifer in the mail (Jude mommy- not just Jude's mommy but Emily's too !) She thanked me for the frame we sent ! I dont know wehere she find the time and she wants to go back to school ! She is a true inspiration ! My new years resolution is to be more like her !!!!!! lol

And the big news......... Pre op was yesterday !!!! Surgery on thursday ! I feel good about it. I am actually more stressed about getting my work done then about the babys surgery ! After sharing the stories of Presley, Henry, Dylan, Gabi and others I feel really prepared ! Thanks guys !!!! My sister flies back Wed nite to take care of the big girls. I have notified both Teresa's and Caitlin's schools incase they show a behavior change.I have my FMLA papers in. I am ready...... I think. And at the same time I think I am scared.NOt of the surgery but of seeing my beautiful little baby like that and then thought of her on a heart/ lung bypass machine ! I wish I was more the science type and thought this medical stuff was cool instead of disquesting !!!

What a Christmas !

Kayden had been sick and it seemed to get worse. It seemed like she was having problems breathing so I took her to the ER. They tested her for RSV, put her on oxygen because her oxygen was low, gave her breathing treatments, and a chest xray. They decided she had broncholitis (?Spelling) and admitted her. The Dr from IMC came down to see about admitting her to IMC. I really didnt like this Dr - her comment was I dont hear anything and I dont understand why she got breathing treatments- What a great Dr ! Can she not hear what everyone else does ? MEanwhile, Teresa was scheduled for oral surgery ! So mom took her to have all her wisdom teeth pulled and took care of her while I took care of Kayden. They went ahead and released Kayden on Xmas eve but we did not want to expose her to anyone. At this point no one said anything about cancelling her surgery ! So everyone was at moms including my cousins who came in from Houston and my sister who took Caitlin) on xmas day. And Robert and I stayed at home and watched movies all day. Do you know when the last time we were able to rent a rated r movie ? I sure as heck cant remember but since it was just us, we took advantage of it ! Our neighbor brought us plates of food and another nieghbor brought us cookies ! Definitly an unusal holiday but peaceful. Robert and I dont get much alone time anymore so it was actally kinda nice

She does have a heart.

My stepdaughter Teresa lives with us, and has since Caitlin was born almost 9 years ago. Even though I do so much for her, I am often considered the evil stepmother since I also discipline her (including taking away her cell phone). She has also been through alot with her mother (if you can call her that even though she did give birth) and Teresa's emotions are a little out of wack. She cries over not getting to go to a friends house but not when the dog died- that sort of out of wack. Well Last night we had a talk about Kayden's surgery and she got tears in her eyes talking about it. she is really upset over the fact that they are going to stop Kayden's heart to do the surgery. I guess I never thought it would affect her that way. Afterall she never even cared to visit me when I was in the hospital for a week. So I was really glad to see her cry. Not being ugly,but she showed the expected emotion. It really touched me to see her true concern for her sister. there is hope for teenagers after all. On a side note... the day before she knocked one of my champagne flutes out of the cabinet and it broke. she was a little ugly about it saying "I already apoligized" and then later high fived her friend when she found out he broke glass of his moms the same day- like she was proud of it. So thatis why I got excited about her tearing up and saying the comment about having hope for teenagers ~smile. PS she also informed me that she has an F on her progress report coming out today ~ sigh~ guess I get to keep holding on to the cell phone !

We have a date !

First I want to say that I spent half of Friday trying to push through Kaydens synagis appt ! I think they just dropped the ball and didnt want to admit it ! The Drs office gave me a load of crap that my primary Dr wouldnt get the referral ! I know better ! Anyway after me throwing fits- we now have it scheduled for Wednesday ! I am not taking any chances of her getting sick. especially cause Teresa is staying home for school today cause she feels sick !

So Caitlin is on her antibiotic for her tooth and it is scheduled to come out on Thursday. Well, she goes to a party Saturday and comes running home, she had eaten a piece of fruit and it pushed up her tooth and made her loose tooth worse ! She ends up calling our friend Jill to come over and pull it- cause after all, Mommy doesnt do that sort of thing ! Jill comes, tooth comes out ! YEAH !!!! except the excitement didnt last long... the tooth fairy didnt come : ( Guess she was just too tired. With a little help she made it the next night and everything is good in the world again. She even left a note saying sorry ! Then Caitlin has the nerve to do a handwriting analysis on the note ! She is definitely going to be a hand full !

So yesterday was our appt with the surgeon. I REALLY like him ! After talking to Kele, I took a list of questions, after asking a couple he asked me "how am I doing ?" She here is the nitty gritty..... He said (btw, his name is Dr Fox) that our of all the scenarios- hers is the best !YEAH !!! He is going to cut her open and open her breat bone (with a saw- I asked if he was going to break it- it made it sound much nicer- although there is no nice way to tell you her breast bone will be held together with wires for the rest of her life ! But he did say the wires wont set off the metal detectors) and repair the atrial septum and ventricular septums ( the walls) and then the mitro valve and tricuspid valves. He thinks it will take about 4 hours for the surgery (his part) but the other things could take 30 minutes to 2 hours. The ventricle septum is real close to a "conductor" and there is a chance he could get to close and then she would need a pacemaker. I little scary to think about ! I am soo glad that I had talked to Kele and Heidi- it game me a good idea what to ask and what to expect so it wasnt such a blow to hear it all from him. Knowing that Presley, Henry, and Zoey have all been through it is so reassuring !So he said "lets pick a date" then he asked "how important is Thanksgiving to your family?" what ? that fast ? no way ! thinking of the other kids I wanted it as close to xmas break as possible so it didnt interfer with school but far enough that she would be home for the holidays. We picked thursday December 11th. I have to call today or tomarrow to schedule her pre op which could take 3-4 hours- fun !

Then I got home and had a "come to jesus" meeting with Teresa. I know she is a teenager but I really need her to straighten up so we can focus as a family on Kayden and not be distracted by her behavior. Besides her grades (2 c's and a f)I discovered yesterday morning that she had taken my phone and text a guy from 10:30 ish to around 11. I found out cause yesterday morning my phone vibrated- I knew I hadnt put it on silent, looked at it and there was a text. I looked in outgoing texts and there was nothing there so I text back and asked who was this. The reply was "Teresa, it's will" I confronted her and she tried to lie but eventually told me that she had used my phone and went in and deleted the texts she sent and put the phone on vibrate. then I find out that when she babysat she asked to use the computer to look up stuff for school- yeah right she got on myspace and facebook and was talking to boys. We discussed that she lied to the parent and how can they trust her with their most valuable possession (their child) but cant trust her with the computer. She is a little embarrassed so hopefully it wont happen again. We also talked about what is going to happen to Kayden and that at her age she needs to step up to the plate and help rather that distract and cause stress because she is sneaking around and lying ! Hopefully we got through to her !