Cherry Hill

So we finally went to Cherry Hill for the first time today. I bought a season pass to take the kids and I guess I just didn't realize it was summer yet. All of a sudden, it's almost July. We went for 1 1/2 hours, which was perfect for boys their ages, so I'm glad I got the pass so we can come and go and not feel like we have to stay ALL DAY to get our money's worth. Anyway, they had a blast, even E, who has in the past been a bit wary of the water. I think we'll make it a 2-3x/week activity from now on!

Also, I heard back from E's blood draw this week that his levels are holding steady, which may be and indication that they'll slowly start to go up in the next 4-6 weeks, so no transfusion for now and we will be back for another blood draw in 2 weeks. It's good news and I'm glad.

We had a fun time tonight doing a dutch oven dinner here at the house with my friend Chris and her family (hi Chris!). It's always fun to get with friends and we should do it more often than we do.

DH and I also got around to staining and putting up the shelving we got at Ikea a few weeks ago, and boy does the dining room/office look amazing compared to before! Here it is before (actually it had gotten worse than this) and then today all organized.

TEC

So the Hemotologist was out of town, but got back to my Dr. today. She called and said that E has TEC and will need to get blood drawn & tested every 2 weeks starting Thursday. If his levels still aren't up by the end of July, he will need to start getting blood transfusions every so often until the TEC clears up. TEC is a temporary condition where the body stops creating blood cells. Usually this is detected because the child is unusually pale and tired. I don't think I ever would have taken him in because of those things, because he doesn't seem too tired to me and if pale is a symptom, we would have a hard time telling the difference there.

Anyway, I still have to learn more, then on Friday if I have questions my Dr. will try to get me some more information. Let's just hope he recovers on his own before we have to go transfusing anything. If not, I suppose he'll be okay either way now that we know.

He sure is a sweet little guy and I know he'll be okay, it's just hard to have to teke him for so many blood draws all the time!

Keep him in your prayers and I'll keep you all posted.

Info here, http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=808

Birthday/Reunion/Father's Day/Dr. Appt.

Those are the reasons we went to Boise for 5 days and we had a fun time and I got to relax for even more than 20 minutes. My cute husband had his birthday and is now really old, 28!!!!! Just kidding, he's still a baby.
His 10 year reunion was fun and I was surprised to learn that there were several people who already had 4 children. Many people were single, and a lot had 1 or 2 kiddos. It will be interesting to see how mine is, being Utah and all. I expect less drinking and even more kids.
If you ask M, the highlight of our trip was meeting "blackie" the kitten at his cousins house. E really liked the horses in the parade, and DH was a fan of the birthday cake, which Whitney and Mom decorated into a volcano. I liked that I got to read a book and go to quilting group where I crocheted for over an hour with nobody pulling on the thread or asking me to nurse them. It was a good time had by all!

Crazy Week

It's been a crazy week! I have been trying to do a ton of stuff for my church callings, pack for Boise, and just the usual yard frustration. All of this was on top of a bunch of testing for E. He has now had his blood drawn 4 times, the poor guy. After 3 Dr. visits and 3 hospital visits, I think they've ruled out anything serious. I hate going through all that for really no reason, but obviously am glad that it isn't anything serious.

After a routine anemia test at his 12mo. appt. they got weird results so we've had to keep going back to get more blood draws. During all this, our insurance changed, so we had to switch to another hospital to do it again. For awhile they thought he had a weird auto-immune disorder and had to get his spleen removed. On Wed, we went to Primary Children's to see a hemotoligist there and (of course) it was pouring that day and their basement flooded and shorted out all the power. So after taking the stairs up to the top in the dark, we saw a doctor in the dark and he had more blood drawn. We were supposed to find out that day right away, but of course they couldn't run their microscope with no power, so we've been trying to get all the results by phone. Still haven't heard the final diagnosis, but it has something to do with him having high fetal hemoglobins (like at a 2-3 month old level) and he will probably always be anemic. His Iron levels, however, look great, so no amount of supplementation in his diet will help. Anyway, I have been pretty stressed trying to coordinate everything but I think we're fine. Well, actually he's sick now and just cut his toe, but whatever.

Sorry for the novel, you ever just have one of those weeks? I am looking forward to spending some time in Boise. I am going to try and relax for at least 20 minutes. Wish me luck!

Sleeping on a cliff and eating dirt

Otherwise known as camping. I LOVE to camp, but this is the first time we've tried with kids. It was a little harder than I thought, but way fun for them, so I'd say it was worth it. We'll go at least once more this summer, but maybe not any more than that until next year. E is really picky about food, but with dirt, I guess it's all good, crazy kid.

Anyway, we cooked in dutch ovens, hiked, made smores, sang camp songs, told stories, broke out the glow sticks, and generally had a great time with our friends the Blacks and their two kids. We went just up Sardine canyon, so only a mile or 2 outside Brigham. It sure is more fun when there's a lake, but it was nice not to have to drive very far, so it was worth having to make your own fun.

By far the BIGGEST hit was the caterpillars that were EVERYWHERE at the campsite, all kinds.