They made it to Utah!

Nathan and Michael are in Utah!  They made it on their own safe and sound.  They had to transfer planes in Denver and had a layover of 3 hours.  I was really worried about all that, but they did fine... found their way, bought lunch, and made it to their next plane.  And even got all their luggage there!  I know, I'm the worried mom.  They were just excited at the adventure.

They'll be there for just over 2 weeks visiting both sides of the family - my family the first week and Blake's family the second week.  They're already having a blast!  I miss them already, but I know it will be fun for them.  Anna cried and cried when they left.  Actually all the girls and Caleb are having a really hard time with them being gone.  They keep saying how empty the house feels and how much they miss the boys and even, "I miss Nathan and Michael teasing me".  It's really neat, as a mom, to see how much my kids love each other and how close they are!  Anna figured out that they will be gone "for 45 meals".  She's devastated by that!  I just thought it was funny that she even thought of that.

Have fun boys!!!  Say hi to the family... and the mountains... for all of us!  And don't shrivel up from the lack of humidity!

Little Musicians

I thought this picture was too cute and had to share.  The kids like to use the fireplace as a stage. 

Caleb and Elizabeth "on stage":

Nathan's Music

Nathan is so interested in music, and he has a great talent for playing and composing.  He plays the viola and has composed a ton of songs.  He's always liked music since day one, and even danced to music before he could walk.  He started composing music after he saw August Rush.  I don't know if that was his inspiration or if it was coincidence.  But a few days after seeing that show I asked him to do some job around the house and he said, "No mom, I can't right now.  I have a song in my head and I have to get it written out."  I said something like, "You don't have songs in your head... do you think you're Beethoven?!  Now do your job!"  Little did I know that I would forever regret those words.  He really does have "songs in his head" and an amazing talent for composing music.  He has been learning music theory on his own via the internet.  And he's taught himself how to play piano.  We're working on getting him piano lessons since he's so interested in music and really has a talent.  

He just went to Branson, Missouri last month with his school orchestra.  They played in a competition there and one first place.  They also went to Silver Dollar City (an amusement park) and had a blast.  Nathan has made some really good friends in his strings class.  Sadly they are splitting the kids up between 2 high schools next year, so he won't see half of them.  He's pretty upset about that.  But he's taking strings next year too and I'm sure he'll make new friends then.  The high school is planning their strings tour for next year.  And in typical Blue Valley School District style, they're going to... HAWAII!!! Can you believe that?  We're working on ways to fund his trip because I think that's an awesome opportunity!!

I'm trying to add an example of his music so you can hear our music genius.  This is some piano music he composed.  He also composes music for entire orchestras.
Hmm, that sorta worked.  When you click on this link it takes you completely away from my blog to another site.  Click on play button (it's kinda small) and you'll hear Nathan's music.  But you'll have to click back on my blog if you want to continue reading.

http://www.divshare.com/download/11681982-999

And here he is after his last middle school concert.  I'm so proud of my boy!!

Fire Station

My blog was beginning to look like a "medical blog" (boring!) so I thought I'd add some pics to change it up a bit.  We went the fire station for "Annual Special Needs Day" a few weeks ago.  The big boys and Blake went fishing so it was just the girls, Caleb and Mom.  Any kid with special needs and their families are invited.  They do tons of activities and the fire fighters even cook up lunch for everyone. The best part is, it's all free!  The kids love it!

Here's Caleb's face right when we got out of the car and he heard sirens and saw the first fire truck.  Of course, this was one of the best days of Caleb's life!  lol  He was fascinated and didn't want to leave - even 4 hours later.

First we all got to ride in a fire truck.  Katie got to sit in the front seat.  They turned on the sirens and honked the horn and everything.  I didn't get pictures because the kids were too excited (especially Caleb!)  and I was having too much fun enjoying their excitement to think about a camera.

The kids got to spray a real fire hose.

Then we went up in one of the fire trucks.  Holy cow, that was high!!  Apparently the ladders go up to 100 feet, but since it was really windy, they only took us up to 65 feet.  "only" 65 feet.  Eeeeek!  I really, REALLY didn't want to go but the girls talked me into it.  At about 45 feet... 4 stories up... I told the guy that was high enough and made him stop.  Yep, I've become a wimp.  Caleb started getting scared too because it was windy and he kept wiggling and I thought for sure he was going to jump right off the side.
Here's proof that I really got in that thing:

Face painting:

Lydia and Elizabeth opted for their hands painted instead of their face:

 Riding in little fire trucks:

Inside 2 different ambulances:

And inside a medical helicopter.  They are a lot bigger inside than you would expect.

Then they got to watch the helicopter take off from about 100 feet away.
hey really enjoyed that, but it was so LOUD!

We watched fire fighters climb down the side of a building.  Scary!  This is the building that was right next to us when we went up in the fire truck and we could see the top of the roof.  They climbed down from that height!  Wow, I'm sure glad I'm not a fire fighter!  lol

  Even with all those fun things to do, the kids just had to... climb a fence, of course.  Whatever. lol

Standing by a fire truck. Caleb wanted to DRIVE the fire truck, not get his picture taken by it.

And they all got fire hats as we left.

Nicholas

This was supposed to be posted on Memorial Day, but that day was a bit crazy with all my heart trouble.  But even in all the chaos, we all still remembered our sweet nephew/cousin Nicholas.

We love and miss you tons Nicholas!!!

Here are the kids (a few of them anyway), sending a balloon to Nicholas on Memorial Day.  

 Lydia was pretty emotional watching the balloon go.  I think this is the first year she really understood.  I remember Anna reacting the same way at about the same age.

My trip to the ER

I'm sure this will be long... I can't ever write anything short.  You're all going to think I'm a hypochondriac by now with the medical issues going on in our family lately.  How can one family possibly have so many medical issues at once?!! 
 
On Sunday I started having chest pain. I had chest pain a few weeks ago that woke me up one night. I just ignored it though because it stopped. I had it for a little bit on Saturday night again, but it went away so I ignored it again. On Sunday it came back and was really uncomfortable and didn't stop for hours. It seemed to be getting worse, not better. Blake told me to check my pulse rate and when I did, it skipped a beat... many times!  So I had Blake check me to see if I was making it up and his eyes got wide. He said we're going to the ER right now. I told him I was fine and it would go away, but really I was nervous so I gave in and let him take me. I hate hospitals and avoid them like the plague! I think I waited about 60 seconds in the waiting room before they got me back. The triage nurse called someone else in to help her and claimed "she didn't know how to hook up the EKG machine quickly." I saw right through it and knew she called the other guy in basically to move things along and "just in case". Once they got me hooked up he said, "PVCs".  (Which I've now learned are not so bad, but at the time just having my condition have a name was scary!  I didn't have a clue what it meant then.)  After that they started hurrying. I could actually tell them when I felt one and sure enough it showed up on the scan at the exact same time and that's what I was feeling. They pushed me back to a room still laying on the bed (weird!) and hooked up an IV and took tons of blood for blood work. I told them I didn't really want to be a priority in the ER and that I could wait a little longer in the waiting room.  They told me they don't mess around with chest pain.  They reassured me that what I was experiencing, "is common." Then why all the hurrying if it's common? And would someone please tell me what's going on?!  So I had to wait an hour for the blood work to come back. In that hour I was FREAKED OUT. I could see the heart rate moniter and it coincided every time to my chest pain. And it was getting more frequent. And my blood pressure and heart rate were WAY above normal. I wonder how much of that was from being scared. Blake wasn't there - he dropped me off at the hospital and took the kids home (as I requested) because I didn't want to bring them to the ER, and because I would stress too much if we left them home alone. So I sat there watching the monitor in a room all by myself, feeling awful. I was light-headed, dizzy, and sick to my stomach. My arms and legs were tingling. I was terrified!  I honestly laid there wondering if I was dying. It was so incredibly SCARY! All I could do is pray that everything was normal and that I would get to go home and see my precious kids and husband again. It really put my life in perspective.  I guess there's nothing like the shock of impending death to really open your eyes and put everything in perspective.


After reading up on PVCs since then I've learned they are common and often not too worrisome. They can be signs of other problems, but where they come out of the blue like that in a normally healthy person then it's not too bad. But at the time, I didn't know what was going on with me. And no one would really explain anything to me. So I was scared and worried! So after I asked about 100 people what was going on and if I was dying and was reassured that everything was ok, I finally started to calm down. My blood work came back after what seemed an eternity.  The results: they think it's from low potassium. My potassium levels came back lower than normal, but not super low. My glucose was also a little high, but they didn't think that was the cause since I had just eaten. So they gave me 2 monstrous potassium pills that I was somehow expected to swallow without them choking me. The first one went down hard so I made the nurse stay in and make sure she was around to do the heimlich on me for the next one.  I don't swallow pills well.  They hooked me up to a Holter monitor. At that point I was hooked up to so many machines and had so many cords hanging off me that it was almost comical. Actually it really gave me claustrophobia. I just wanted out of that hospital and wanted to go home and sit on the couch and hug my babies.

So that was the excitement. I had to wear the monitor for 24 hours and then they'll (hopefully) be able to figure out what's going on with me. In the meantime I'm supposedly fine and I'm supposed to go on with life as usual, while having chest pain and worrying and feeling awful while my heart skips beats. I really want to just get back to my normal, routine, boring life rather than worrying about chest pain and heart issues!! But I just had to share about one of the scariest moments in my life. I really think it's going to be a turning point for me. No more being depressed that I have to make 10 meals a day and clean them up. No more stressing about crumbs on the floor. I'm just going to enjoy every single second I have with my family. I've really been so stressed out lately for nothing and I need to learn how to deal with it.

I'll update when I know anything else. This is really crazy - I consider myself a pretty healthy person!