Decisions

The house is going great! At the beginning of this project Craig & decided that I would be our general contrator. For the past 2 weeks I've been passing out plans to contrators like crazy. I understand why people hire generals now. It's frustrating chasing plans everywhere. But well worth the money that we are saving. =) Last night we finally started making some decisions on who to hire and what supply houses to go with. Today I'm picking out a basement contrator and touching base with the bank on our appraisal. Hopfully I can pull our building permit this week too!! Things are really starting to come together fast!!

The House

As most of you know, Craig & I have been talking about building a house for FOREVER!! Well, it's finally time to take the leap. Back in May we sold our house. Currently we are in a small rental house which seems to be shrinking every day.

On Friday we picked up our finalized plans. We will begin meeting with contractors and suppliers the next few weeks. Then the maddness begins! I'll be posting pictues as we go along. Lots of pictures.

Marshmallow Pops

I don't know how many of you have heard of "Taste Of Home". My Aunt Kathy turned me onto them a few years ago. LOVE the website and LOVE the magazine. This is a recipe from thier recent magazine on news stands now.

Marshmallow Pops
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
4-1/2 teaspoons canola oil
36 to 40 large marshmallows
18 to 20 popsicle sticks
sprinkles - LOTS of them

1. In a shallow microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and oil. Stir until smooth.

2. Thread two marshmallows onto each wooden stick. Roll marshmallows in melted chocolate, turning to coat. Allow excess to drip off. Roll in sprinkles. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm.

We made these for Cody's baseball party.

Halie's going to make them for her party tomorrow night too.

Should we throw away the extra sprinkles or eat them? Hmm...

Cody decided to eat them!

Just chillin.

Yummy!!!

What now?

It's official. Softball and bseball are over at our house. The girls had thier tournaments this weekend and both got beat out. Cody's last game was Thursday. Now what? For the last 2 months every night has been filled up with something softball/baseball related. Constant go go go. Now our evenings are free. Nothing to do. No concession stand to feed us every night. Life will be able to settle back to normal I guess. Until it's time to start on the house. Just a few more weeks hopefully!! I'll keep everyone updated on the project.

Pictures of the Last Month Roller Coaster

Wanted to let you all know that we met with Sadie's surgeon last week. She is doing awesome! He was very impressed with her healing. We go back in November for another check up and a few tests.

Here are a few pictures of the good and the bad over the last few weeks...

Sadie a few hours after she came out of surgery.



She looks so peaceful in this picture. God's arms were wrapped around her.



The first time that she was allowed to eat. 3 days after her surgery. Graham crackers never tasted so good!



This is Dr. Trish. She is a fellow for Dr. Ostlie (the surgeon). Trish is the doctor that actually dismissed us from teh hospital. Dr. Ostlie had to leave town a couple of days after Sadie's surgery. Loved Trish!!



Hanah graduated from 6th grade this year. Here is the onery bunch. =)

Hanah hanging out with her friends after the ceremony.

This was taken at the birthday/graduation party. Kristen and Hanah's birthday are about a week apart. They had a blast!

Halie playing looking to pass the ball to a teammate at basketball camp.

Mr. Cody at basketball camp. He's an aggresive player!

Dr. Ostlie & Sdie at her check up last week. He is a great man. I owe him everything...

Sadie's Story ~ Part 4

Saturday. It was a bittersweet day. Mom & Dad were leaving today. They had to get home to help take care of our other kiddos. It was hard for them to leave. They had been on this incredible roller coaster with us the entire time. Seeing Sadie at her absolute worst and watching her fight like heck to get better every second. It's amazing to me how such a little person can bring so many people (who don't even know eachother) together. That morning they took out her chest tube. She no longer had any drainage coming form her around her lung. Next, out came the ART line (arterial IV). They used this IV to take blood and give her blood transfusions as needed. The only tubes left were the IV in her left hand and the IV in her foot. She had these for pain medication only. The next step to being released from the hospital was to remove these tubes and control her pain with oral medication.

When Mom & Dad arrived at the hospital that Saturday morning Craig & I decided to go down to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. While we were gone my dad got a cup of coffee and brought it into the room. At this point little Sadie hadn't been able to drink or eat anything since Tuesday night at 10. When she saw my dad's cup of coffee she leaped across her crib and tried to grab it. They couldn't belive how fast she moved. Tubes and all! =) When Craig & I got back to the room we asked the nurse if Sadie could start drinking liquids. After speaking to her surgical team they gave her the okay to eat and drink. Her first liquid was apple juice. She couldn't get enough! Next came the graham crackers. We still laugh about this. She sat in her crib with the graham cracker held tightly in her little hand. Chewing on it like a little squirrel. (pictures soon to follow) Closely guarding it just in case anyone tried to take it away from her. That wasn't going to happen. After an hour of watching her to make sure she could keep the apple juice and crackers down, she was allowed to have whatever she wanted. Candy, chips, fruit. You name it. The cafeteria was hers!

Craig's parents came up on Saturday afternoon. I think that it was driving them crazy being so far away from her during the whole ordeal. When they arrived she was doing pretty well. Just the 2 IVs in. Her color still looked pretty good. Craig's dad was amazed at how fast she was healing. We all were. I couldn't believe that just a couple of days ago she was lying in PICU hooked up to a breathing maching. Now she was sitting on my lap watching cartoons and eating fruit snacks. Amazing!!

Sunday morning we got the word that she was going to be released. My Aunt Kathy & Uncle Joe were on thier way up to see her. When they arrived we started packing up her things. I signed her release papers and met with the last few doctors. Her follow up instructions were over the counter ibprophen every 8 hours and an oral pain perscription every 4 hours. This girl just had major surgery and this was all of the medication that she would be sent home on. Amazing!! We would follow up with our surgeon in two weeks, her pediation when we got home, her cardiologist at age 3, and her pulmonolgist, also when we got home. I was overwhelmed to think that we wouldn't have any nurses in case she had trouble breathing. No alarms if her heart rate went crazy. She was fine though. None of these issues had come up in the last couple of days. Craig's dad tried to talk the nurses out of releasing her. He told them that she wasn't ready to go home. She hadn't had enough time to heal. Part of me agreed with him. But we were ready. Physically. Emotionally. We were ready to go home.

Around noon we were walking out of the doors of Children's Mercy Hospital and loading everything back into the car for the 3 hour car ride home. On the way home I couldn't help but think about how blessed we are. So many people prayed for us. So many people took time out of thier day to care. People I don't even know. People I will probably never meet. If you are reading this blog I just want to say thank you. Thank you for thinking of us. Thank you for praying for us. I hope Sadie's story has touched your life some how some way. Throughout this experience our family has been reminded of a few things. God is good. Prayer works. Miracles happen. Sadie is proof.

Sadie's Story ~ Part 3

When I think about my children I always have an image of them smiling. Happy. Care free. It makes me overjoyed to think of them that way. I wouldn't want to remember them any other way. It hurts me when they are in pain or upset. Seeing Sadie almost broke me. Literally broke me. While we were waiting to see Sadie we made a few calls to family and friends to update them on her status. I remember calling my best friend Ashlei who was updating everyone else at home. I sat down and dialed her number. When she answered I told her that she needed to sit down. I explained what they had found in Sadie's surgery and that she was in PICU. We didn't know what was going to happen and things would be touch and go for a little while. We cried. I think that's when it really hit me just how much my little girl had gone through and how much fighting she still had left to do. Ashlei said that she would pass on the news and ask for more prayers. Prayers is exactly what we needed to get through this. God is good. He provided.

At 8 o'clock Craig and I were allowed to go back and see Sadie in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). We tried to prepare ourselves. I'm not sure how you can do something like that. When we walked in her room I cried. I tried not too, really I did. But there she was laying in a hospital crib hooked up to tubes, cords and all kinds of different monitors. Unable to breathe on her own. Still in a high critical state. I remember thinking to myself how good her color looked. She wasn't as pale as I thought she would be. She had nurses and doctors all around her. They wouldn't leave her side. I was amazed at the care she received. Craig and I kissed her little forehead and stroked her hair. The nurses told us that she could hear our voices. We talked to her and told her how much we loved her and that she was going to be okay. We took turns being with her so mom & dad could see her before visiting hours were over.

That Wednesday night was long. We were allowed to stay in her room. Craig & I didn't sleep at all. Doctors and nurses were in Sadie's room constantly. Monitor alarams would go off every now and then. When they would we would jump. Panic. We had an awesome nurse though. Ashley was her name. She was a very caring and compasionate person. She explained everything to us as we went along. Every now and then Sadie would wake up from her sedation. When she did she would look at us with panic in her eyes and try to lift her arms. But they had her arms tied down to the bed so she wouldn't wake up and pull her tubes out. The nurses would give her a shot of medicine in her IV to knock her back out. This happened about every hour. It was heart wrenching. We couldn't do anything to help her except pray. We did a lot of that. Prayer is what saved us.

Thursday was better. Her chest x-ray confirmed that her lung was healing well. Her heart rate and oxygen levels were beginning to stablize. The prayers were working. Dr. Ostlie, her surgeon, said that they were going to start weaning her off of the ventilator on Friday. We were excited. Getting her off of that machine meant that she would be able to be moved to a regular room soon. I couldn't wait to hear her cry again. I missed it. That afternoon they took some blood to test her hemoglobin levels and white blood cells. Her hemoglobin came back too low. A minor set back. She would now require a blood transfusion. We had come all this way without needing one. I was upset. She was doing so well, and now this. The transfusion took about an hour. I was amazed at the difference. All of her stats came up and they started to turn down the ventilator.

Friday was a great day. Around 11 a.m. they pulled her ventilator tube and got rid of her sedation medicine. Her little cry was so weak. We were able to start holding her. I was so nervous to pick her up. She still had 3 IVs and 6 incisions. We could only hold her a certain way. I will never forget when the nurse handed Sadie to me. He set her on my lap and we rocked. She put her little cheek on my chest and cuddled up as close as she could get to me. I wrapped my arms around her and rocked her while I (of course) cried. These were tears of joy. I felt like I could finally comfort her and help her. Something I wasn't able to do over the last few days. Craig was still too nervous to hold her. He played camera man and read books to her. When I would sing songs she would calm down and fall asleep. I didn't want to let her go. I wanted to stay right there in that one calm peaceful moment. I could feel God telling me that it was going to be okay. Mom & Dad had a chance to hold her later during that day. Things were really looking up. Later that night around 9 we were moved to our own room, right across from the surgical clinic. We could breathe. She was out of the woods and we were going to be okay. It was going to be okay. To Be Continued...