Prayers needed.....

Hello all of my good bloggy friends. I just wanted to hop on here and give you a quick update.

Life has been really good this summer. Then June came. haha We had a lot of rain come down earlier this month and it ended up flooding the shopping strip that one of the salons are in. We were down for a day but that is lucky considering some business are still closed.

Carson has been doing really well without the feeding tube. We thought we would pull the tube and see if we can get him to eat orally BEFORE doing the permanent G tube. His asthma seems to be under control for the first time since April/May. But this week he has been running high fevers and throwing up. I took him to the doctor and he probably has strep so he is on a Z pack for 5 days.

Cody was at soccer camp Thursday and said that when he went to sprint he felt something pop in his hip. He has a fracture in his hip and the bone has pulled away from his muscle. So he will need to stay on crutches for 2 weeks and then put some weight on it after that. He has a doctor appt in 3 weeks to see if he needs physical therapy or worse case.....surgery.

Then if that wasn't enough, my mom called and said they took my dad to the hospital. He was later transferred to another hospital and is currently awaiting to have bipass surgery. He had a mild heart attack and has at least 3 areas where his blood isn't flowing correctly. So I have spent a lot of time at the hospital over the last few days.

Coltan, well so far so good! He has helped me in the middle of the night when I'm up with Carson and helped me today with the boys so that I could leave and spend time with my dad at the hospital. I'm so proud of him for stepping up and being responsible in a time of need.

If you could keep my family in your thoughts and prayers that would be sooooo wonderful.

I will hopefully have more info tomorrow on my dad. They haven't found a surgeon until Monday so he is in ICU and has a nurse with him 24/7 until then.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL

Happy Mother's Day to all of my great bloggy friends. I hope everyone is having the best day. I have had a great day so far. I have my three boys and were all hanging out, what more could I ask for!

Hello strangers....

Wow, what a month. It has been a wild and crazy month in my household as usual. So where should I start?

We left town on March 28Th and I literally got my computer fixed and back the day before. My computer had over 45 viruses on it and thank goodness I had all of my pictures backed up except for Christmas, Cody's b-day, Coltan's b-day and few after that. But my computer guy is the best and recovered ALL of those and they are backed up as well! So with that said, that is why I haven't been posting for so long.

Me, just been hanging in there and keeping busy with soccer and Dr appts and trying to stay well. I have strep throat and when your taking care of others with it, no fun at all.

Coltan, well he has been driving a little bit and has probably added some grey hairs on my head. Thank goodness for hair color. LOL We were going to his soccer practice one day and I pulled over to let him drive and he did okay. Gotta work on his "going around curves" more smooth. After we pulled up to his fields, his coach was behind us and said to him, well that explains it, I thought I was following a drunk. I'm sure the more practice he gets, he will improve (I hope).

He has had 4 soccer games since my last post. They have won 2, tied 1, and lost 1. His next tournament is in a couple of weeks.

Coltan has also been out of school since Monday due to strep throat. Yup, we actually ALL have it so it has been fun.

Cody, he has also been out of school due to strep. He has been keeping me the busiest with soccer. We actually went to Dallas March 28Th-April 5Th. This tournament was the first international tourney we have ever played in. It was a really great experience. Our team really isn't healthy right now and we didn't advance but for having several boys out, we actually played really well. We currently have one out with a broken ankle and another boy broke his wrist in Dallas. We have one that recently had hip surgery and another that is only playing partial games due to an injured back. Then we had 3 more that flew home in the middle of the tourney because they had MAP testing at their schools. So by Friday our 18 man roster, we had only 13 boys playing. After the tournament, we drove to Ft Worth and spent Friday and Saturday there and ended up having lots of fun. We took in a rodeo, went horse back riding, and rode a steam engine train. Of course I have lots of pictures and will try to down load soon.

Cody was in another tournament in Kansas City last weekend and they played really well. We played a team from Topeka and won 3-1. Next we played the number 1 team from South Dakota and beat them 9-0. Then we played a very good team from Arkansas and lost 1-3. Although a boy was off sides on the second goal and our goalie really did deflect the ball on the third. But Cody got the ONLY goal and all I can say is MOMMY WAS PROUD. It was a sweet goal! We finished that tournament in 2ND place. Nice job boys.

Carson, well he just turned 4 on April 7Th! My baby is a big boy now. I cannot believe how the time flies. He ended up having a great week of birthday parties and we still have a few more things planned but waiting for him to get better.

We came back into town around 5:30AM Easter morning.....very long 8 hour drive with no sleep and a nice sunburn........and on Monday Carson was showing signs of asthma. So off to the doctor and back on prednesolone for 5 days. Now this makes it a problem when he is meeting with the surgeon on April 6th for his up coming surgery on April 12th for the permanent feeding tube. It is now off the books till we can get him ALL better. Oh and my mom is very happy about that.

So we celebrated his birthday last Wed at Waldo Pizza with some of the family. I had some other fun things planned as well but needed to wait til last weekend, and he is still waiting as well.

Friday Cody had a soccer game from the tournament and Carson's asthma was so bad that we ended up giving him a breathing treatment through the nebulizer in the car on the way home. Saturday his asthma was just as bad. Sunday we had planned to go to Chuck E Cheese, and to some stables for him to ride a horse and he ended up with 104.1 temp. He was really bad. I had to take all of his clothes off and lay cold wash clothes on him and he was so sick that he didn't even care. I finally got it down to 102 and we pretty much stayed up all night doing medicines and breathing treatments.

Monday I took him, Coltan, and myself to the Dr and yup, Cody gave us all strep as well. So he is doing breathing treatments with Combivent for the next 5 days 6 times a day. Then after that he will go down to Xopenex for 2 1/2 more weeks 4 times a day. He is also on a strong antibiotic for the next 10 days.

Carson also had his Pulmonology appt today at Children's and with everything going on, we are thinking about trying the Advair again. This is the inhaler that he took over a year ago and he started having the syncable episodes. So I told her that if I can't get a handle on his asthma over the next couple of weeks, I will call her and have her call it in. She also discussed with me doing the fundo-placation that I decided against. She thinks it would be a great idea to have that done as well because she feels that his acid reflux is probably a good part of Carson's problems where asthma is concerned. So now I'll be doing some more thinking about that. We will be scheduling another sleep study in the next 3-6 months as well as blood work to check his ferratin level and iron level again. Other than that, he looks great. LOL

So here is to another very long post but I think we are pretty much caught up now. I hope to catch up with everyone's blogs very soon. I miss reading everyone's blogs. Not having a computer for so long was like missing a lifeline!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday......

Long overdue......

We just wanted to drop in and say hello to everyone. I have been without a computer for a while. My computer has a virus on it so it is in the shop getting fixed.

So what has been going on???? Well most exciting news is that Carson is POTTY TRAINED!!! I had a lot of errands to run Tuesday and went ahead and put him in a diaper. We were gone for over 5 hours and the first thing I did when we returned home was take his diaper off. It was DRY. He has been doing awesome and to reward him, we went to Wal Mart and picked out some new underwear. He choose Cars and Thomas the Train.

Carson went to the doctors a couple of weeks ago and we found out from the scales that he hasn't gained one ounce in 5 months.....sigh..... So they are really starting to push for the feeding tube through the tummy. I guess I have been in denial thinking that we would get over this hump. He did grow a couple of inches taller so he went from 20-25% to about 12%. So I have surgery scheduled for after his 4th birthday in April but it isn't 100% certain that I'm going to follow through with it. I just have a lot to think about and a lot of praying to find the right answer.

He also had some blood work done. The first one is for his iron level. The iron went up which was great news but his ferritan level was still very low. The way it was explained to me is that Ferritan is a protein that stores iron and releases it in a controlled fashion. 30% of your iron is stored in either your spleen, liver, or bone marrow. So we had a follow up and did a CBC to check out his counts. This has been kind of scary. This could be a sign of something very serious or something simple like a vitamin C deficiency or restless leg syndrome. So please keep Carson in your prayers over the next few weeks while we make sure his organs are working correctly and rule out the bad things.

His other blood work was to test the gases. I'm not exactly sure what this one was. I know that if he scored between 250-300 it meant his Nexium was working well. The good news, he scored a 268. So that means that we will probably rule out the Fundoplacation. YEA!!!!

He is still going to OT. We have missed a few weeks here and there because of snow, ice storms, and there was a couple of weeks where we were sick one week and the therapist was sick one week. Apparently the road Nancy lives on never gets plowed so every time is snows, she has to cancel because she cannot get up her street.

We have also just recently discovered that when Carson does eat, he is storing his food in his cheeks. We also discovered that he has a under sensitive gag reflux which doesn't help with the vicious cycle of his aspirating. So we are still working with his sensory process disorder as well as his oral for eating.

Coltan has been having a rough time with driving. He turned 15 in Jan and we have had a rough winter. I'm not ready for him to learn to drive, let alone, drive in crummy weather. He has done the simple going out to the parking lot and pulling the warm car up for Carson and I. LOL He hasn't been very active with soccer. They played futsol for the winter and he is just now getting into the Mon/ Wed practices.

Cody hasn't done a whole lot either. He has his indoor soccer league and one day a week practice. Thursday is the only day that I have all three boys and we don't have any soccer, so we try to have a nice family dinner or movie night or do something with all of us.

I have taken lots of pics and as soon as I get my computer back, watch out. Haha We did have an ice storm over the weekend and I took some pictures. It was a challenge to drive in but the next day the sun came out and the ice was still in the tree branches. It really was pretty to LOOK at. But again, this has been one of the worse winters that I can remember and I'm so ready to Spring to get here!

Meeting a blogger!

Okay, I'm so behind on blogging but hey, what's new? Haha After the new year I was so happy that I got to meet a blogger buddy and her husband. Their names are Ryan and Lindsey Ebright. They are such a cute married couple and are always having fun.

I was googling something one day on a card game called Canasta and her blog popped up. Not only does she love to play the game, she also grew up in a suburb of Kansas City. I left her a comment about canasta and we have been blogging buddies every since. Her husband and her have actually relocated to Texas so I was really honored that they took the time out of their family time to come meet us.

So we decided to meet at my mothers house and have a Canasta showdown. My mother has played the game for about 30+ years with 7 other woman and currently they still have 6 of the original ladies playing. I have been brought in to sub when one can't make it. So just to be fair, we split up with Ryan and Lindsey and of course Ryan wanted my mom and her 30+ years experience to be HIS partner. It's okay cause we ended up losing but not that far behind.

I'm going to be taking Cody to Texas in March and we are hoping to all get together while we are down there. Oh and Ryan, be ready, we won't be so nice to you next time. LOL

So of course Carson felt the need to be in the pictures with us. Lindsey and I

Aren't they the cutest couple you have ever seen? And not only do they have looks, they have great personalities. You two had me laughing the whole time.

I was upset that for some reason the only pics with my mom came out dark. So here is the best of the 3 that I had. :-(

Lindsey and Ryan, you two are welcomed back to our house anytime. Thanks again for sharing your limited time with us. I had a great time meeting you guys in person.

Scenes around Chicago

Here are a few more pics of Chicago. This was some of my favorite places to visit when I'm there.

This is the Navy Pier. It is a lot more fun in the summer when they have more outdoor things to do. It has a lot of specialty shops and unique restaurants. It is a great place to go to get a Chicago souvenir. It also has a very large ferris wheel and I thought I got a pic but did not. The all famous Hard Rock. I have eaten here but it was at least 5+ years ago.

This is a really cool McD's. It is 2 stories and has a oldies theme inside.

They have really good hot chocolate on a cold day.

The famous clock that my family stands in front of to get a pic.

This was inside the Navy Pier. This is the first time I have seen the Thomas the train there. It was 2.00 a ride and it lasted about 5 minutes. I should have brought a book because he stayed on there for a very long time.

All the times I have been to Chicago, I have never eaten here. But we had to take a pic cause of my little Pork Chop. Has anyone been here? Let me know if it was any good.

This is the famous Billy Goat's. It was always on Saturday Night Live because of their slogan. If you ask for fries with your burger they say "no fries, only chips".

I finally took a picture of Coltan.....Thanks Coltan. I wished I took more of him but he was never with me. He was shopping on Michigan Ave with my mom where it was a lot colder.

My two sweet boys. (Sorry Cody, you were playing soccer instead of shopping)

Thanks for taking the time to walk through our fun trip to Chicago. It is a fun place that we always enjoy going to. Hopefully next time I go, I have all 3 boys, and Carson has outgrown all of his problems. No tubes, no monitors, no oxygen......

Sky Deck AKA Sears Tower

The last day we spent in Chicago, Carson and I went our own way after breakfast with the family. First stop was The Sky Deck. We walked part of it and then took a cab the rest of the way. It was really cute, every time we got into a cab, Carson would tell the driver to go straight, take a right, then a left....and so and. He thought he was giving directions to all the drivers. Then I would have him pay the cab fare and he just thought he was soooo cool. LOL



These towers here were Coltan's favorite. If you notice the bottom part of the tower is the parking garage and the top part are the condo's. Depending on what floor, these condos were 300-1 million. At least that is what a cabby told me. A quick picture of Carson and I.

Every time that we go to Chicago, we always get a picture of the building with the clock. There is a bridge you can cross and we take the picture with that building in the background. For some reason, I tried several different pictures and they all came out dark. :-(

This sign is a landmark. This was about where we stopped for a cab. Carson was getting to cold and I didn't want to jinx it.

This is a picture of the Shed from the Sky Deck.

This was the Chicago Planetarium. It was okay. Not really for Carson so we ended up not staying very long. I think it would have been better for Coltan. I thought it was kind of cool though.

Another view from the deck

We went to the Planetarium Sunday evening before heading back to KC and this was the view from the parking lot.

Shed Aquariam in Chicago

Nothing really going on. I have been trying to get over a terrible sinus infection.

Coltan and Cody have just had soccer practice and nothing very exciting with them going on either.

Carson keeps having asthma issues. He was supposed to have OT yesterday and Nancy was out sick. So they rescheduled for today and she is still out sick. That is better for me so now I can nurse my headache from the comfort of my own home.

Here are a few pictures from the Shed Aquarium in Chicago. We went there just before Christmas. My parents took Carson, Coltan, two nieces, and myself. It ended up being very cold so Carson and I ventured off and did more sightseeing while the others walked up and down Michigan Ave.

Cody had a few soccer games in St Louis MO so he stayed back in KC so that he could go.

Here we were waiting for the water show.

This was the amazing view from the Shed.

Carson standing in the window in the cafeteria.

Those eggs were very popular. It was really sad because parents would try and grab them so their own children could play with them. I never seen anything like it.

On our way to the car. That is Lake Michigan behind us.

Prayers needed for Jaxson.....

Please say a prayer for my little buddy Jaxson. He is currently in PICU and is really a sick kiddo. He has been struggling for a while with a virus and they confirmed he has a sister virus of RSV and also has pneumonia. I'm sure Lacey would love if you could hop over to her blog and leave a comment for her cute little guy.

Get well soon Jaxson. Carson and I are praying for you!!!

Easy Mac N Cheese.....not so easy

A couple of nights ago, I made some baked BBQ chicken, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, and peas. When it was time to gather the boys, Cody was asleep. So after dinner, I put a plate out for him in case he would wake up hungry. So around 9:00 PM, Cody woke up and said he just wanted some mac n cheese. I was sitting in the living room which is next to the kitchen and started smelling something that was worse than burnt popcorn. I ran to the microwave and this is what I found. Did you know that even though it is easy, you still should add water in it? Cody proud of his straight A in Home Ec. I think the first thing the teach in that class is READ THE DIRECTIONS.

I ended up burning lots of candles because it was to cold to open the windows.

Carson has pigtails???

We haven't done a whole lot this week. Coltan, Cody, or both were home everyday this week from school. Carson and I haven't gotten the flu yet (knock on wood) but Carson has had 2 asthma flair ups since last Friday night.



Cody hasn't had anything this week and he was sick on Wed and Thurs. He went back to school yesterday and is now at his dad's hopefully doing lots of homework because he has a full day of soccer tomorrow with the ODP MO state team. This is the team that only chooses 17 kids from the whole state.



Cody was in a soccer tournament last weekend and they won every game. One game the final score was 15-2! Cody averaged 3 goals a game and played awesome. They ended up taking first place.



Coltan guest played with a team from West Des Moines (yes we live in Kansas City) and Sunday night, he played one of the best games I have EVER seen him play. He ended up scoring 2 goals. One goal was right at the buzzer and he barely made it in. It was sweet! The team ended up finishing 3rd place and Coltan had a lot of fun.



Back to the West Des Moines team.....years ago, Cody and my neice Aspen traveled to West Des Moines once or twice a year. Their was a coach there named Bill who has a daughter who is Aspen's age and a son that is Coltan's age. He watched Aspen's championship game and asked her if she would be willing to play as a guest player and travel with the team. So he was coming to town to play in the tournament and called my mom to see if Coltan and Cody were available for the tournament to play on his son's team. The tourney lasted through Monday and there were a few parents that had to leave Sunday so they could work on Monday. So Coltan played 2 games Sunday and Cody played the last game Sunday. Cody was also responsible for Coltan's first goal. He got the ball to Coltan and then Colt just tapped it in.



Coltan of course turned 15 on Monday. We stayed at home and hung out. We planned on eating with the family on Tuesday. So at dinner Tuesday night, Coltan said he wasn't feeling very well. My dad didn't make the dinner because he was home with stomach flu and Coltan and Cody spent some time with them over the weekend.... So Coltan has been home since. He was supposed to have a game today but no school, no soccer.



Carson and I have been getting very serious with the potty training. He is really testing me. Last night he decided to aim in my floor vent in the kitchen and I had a really nice mess to clean up. I know Carson knows what he is doing. He has even taken off his diaper and put on a pull up to pee in that. So getting him to potty in the toilet, I'm not sure. We tried to potty train last summer and he was doing really well. He would earn a sticker and for every 10 he would get a Thomas the train engine. That worked for a while and then he just lost interest in earning trains. So I'm at a loss. Any ideas, I'm listening!



Carson ended up having a scary attack last Friday night. Thank goodness between all of his meds and having oxygen, I was able to keep him at home instead of urgent care. The weather outside was cold and it was so foggy you couldn't even see the house 2 doors down. So needless to say, I was really wanting to not get out in in. I ended up getting his left lung clear but still heard lots of wheezing in the right lung. I pushed him up to 4 liters of oxygen just to get his sats at 95. I stayed up most of the night giving him treatments every 2-3 hours just to keep the wheezes away and his sats up. I called the doctor and we have him on Prednesone. He still isn't 100% yet but we are working on it.



As for me? Well I have started seeing someone. We are taking it very slow but he is a super nice guy. I have known him for a while and he ended up moving last year on a job transfer. He decided he didn't like it as well and moved back up before Christmas. We haven't really went on a date yet but I'm always very busy with the kiddos. He stopped by after the new year and we are just kind of hanging out. He did ask me to dinner last night but you know, sick kid at home. We are supposed to go to his house today if Coltan feels better. He lives on a lot of acres and wanted to go 4 wheeling. We will also have to see about the weather. It was raining this morning and he is 1 1/2 hours south of me, so we shall see what happens. Coltan and Cody think he is cool. He plays dodge ball with them, wrestles with them, and even likes Xbox. Carson and him play trains together. Carson's eyes light up every time he walks into my house. It has been so nice to have a stable, well balanced, even tempered male in the house, even though it's every now and them......slow....baby steps. I just don't want to rush into anything and I want to stay very focused on the boys because no matter what, they come first.



So Carson and I were messing around a few mornings ago and I couldn't resist taking pics of his cute little face. He brought me two rubber bands and told me he wanted pig tails. He then went into the bathroom and laughed and said, mom, I look soooo silly. Then he brought me the camera. I guess this is a clue, he is ready for a hair cut.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Coltan!!

Yesterday was really Coltan's birthday so as usual, I'm a day late.

15 years ago I woke up at 4:45 AM and noticed my water broke. I woke up Chris and told him it was time. As we were driving to the hospital to deliver my first, I started getting worried wondering if I was going to be a good mom. So I started crying and told Chris that I changed my mind and really didn't want to have this baby. LOL

I was in labor for 24 hours and 10 minutes and out came my beautiful baby boy named Coltan Carl. He was a really chubby baby and always smiled. Coltan was 8lb 10oz and 20 inches long.

Coltan was always early with everything he did. Sitting, crawling....walking at 10 1/2 months. He was by far the easiest and quickest when it came to potty training (which was good since Cody was born 11 months later).

As Coltan developed a personality, I started to get a little worried. He is A LOT like his mom. Wants to have the last word and thinks he knows everything. We have had our share of ups and downs that come with the typical teenager but overall, he is a wonderful, polite, great kid.

So today is the day that I reflect back on how much you have grown up. You were once this little boy that needed mommy for everything to the man of the house. He helps me fix the broken things in the house and on occasion, helps out with Carson. Coltan is the first one to open doors for the elderly and has even been known to help them shovel their driveways when we have 15 inches of snow in about a two week span.

Coltan also helps with dinner and he is my HUGE helper when it comes to laundry. Coltan is also very sociable. He loves hanging out with his friends and loves playing soccer. Coltan made JV his freshman year which is really an honor considering our high school is very large. I enjoyed watching most of his games but as the fall continued, so did the decrease in the temperature and a few games were beyond freezing.

Coltan is a pretty good student and usually I don't have to worry about his grades to much.

Coltan's soccer team didn't travel but he still was able to go to a lot of fun places this year with me. We did go to Columbia a few times for his ODP and we had our family vacation in South Dakota last summer. Coltan also went with us to Chicago last Dec and had a lot more fun than I ever thought.

With all of this said, I'm really looking forward to this next year when I'm going to be his favorite person. Since he is 15, he is getting his drivers permit and only the parents can be with him. LOL We are going to have a lot of quality time together and I'm scared....but excited!

Happy Birthday Coltan! Even though your 15, you will aways be my baby. I love you!

Thanksgiving 2009
First day of school Aug 09

South Dakota June 09

Coltan and Carson acting like they are talking to the statue.

Coltan hanging out with NO hair earlier 2009. He was getting a physical for school sports.

Aren't they always an angel....when their asleep?

One of my all time favorite pics. Carson really loves his big brother.

St Louis Coltan enjoying some time with us.