Sunday, June 27

Growing

Summer is starting to grow.


And look a little better than all the rain.



Small people are growing too.



And playing together.


Tommy and Liam are growing so much lately.  Liam is making progress (slowly) with speech.  Tommy is saying an 'almost' intelligible 'thank you' which is his third word!  'Momma' and 'dadda' were his first words but those are infrequent now. 
Hannah and Nate are on a 10 day road trip with their dad to Mt Rushmore and so far their facebook pictures look like lots of fun!  Although I miss them terribly.
Summer.  I'm glad it's here.

Saturday, June 26

I'm a winner!

Our sweet friend Braska (her name is over there to the right "Nebraska") chose us as the winner of a blog makeover!  I was so impressed though with her verbal skills that I had to watch the video again just to be sure I won.  Yipppeeeee!  Tommy's blog needs a sprucing up.  What do you guys think... a blog with bannanas (which he treats as a food group)?  Boy colors?  Yellow, orange and red are his favorite colors.  Hmmm.  This is bound to be fun.  Plus Braska's mom RK is super talented with computers and just been so helpful to us with Gtubes, ng tubes and persnickety oral aversion stuff over the past three years this will be FUN!

Tuesday, June 22

Not sure....

About the only thing I'm sure about is I was working today, going over some financial information with some other staff and then the weirdest scariest feeling of almost passing out happened.  My head hurt really bad first, then my entire body felt like warm tingling waves coming and going.  I just sat in a chair for awhile and tried to figure out what was happening.  I thought I was having a stroke or something.  Nothing has happened like that before.  My arms were really hot and then my legs got warm...... and then all of a sudden I was cold and shaking and layed down on the floor of the conference room we were in.  My wonderful friends at work and I decided after a bit of high blood pressure and the feeling not going away.... to take a little ambulance ride to the hospital.  Not to worry, the ct scan on my head was nomal.  And this evening I'm home and typing this and enjoying a strawberry pie from my sweet neighbor Nora.    All of my kids this evening gave me big hugs and we realized once again how fragile life is and to live each day to the fullest!

Friday, June 18

And more on orphans.

I missed the segment on the View tv show (because I'm working today), but I'm so glad to find this thru my friend..... and glad to hear what this mommy "would have wanted to talk about".  

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2010/06/what-i-wanted-to-say.html

So, while Hannah and Nate and I look into the possibility of both of them at new school settings next year (Hannah is testing into running start at our community college, Nate is interested in Explorations HS).... and Tommy & Liam are changing at the speed of sound,  there are *so* many orphans in the world that need permanent families.  Families to help them figure out education options.  Families to love them.  Families to feed them.  This is an issue so heavy on my heart each day. 

Monday, June 14

Adoption of kids with Down syndrome

Want to see two cute faces?  Reece's rainbow, the international adoption group for boys and girls orphaned with Down syndrome has some wonderful families that just met their new additions:

http://urbanfunnyfarm.blogspot.com/

http://savingsofia.blogspot.com/2010/06/gotcha-day.html

Oh what happiness for those families.   The site for Reece's rainbow is on Tommy's page to the right.  What a wonderful group of folks making a daily difference.   Isn't that what life is about? 

Wednesday, June 9

Two surgeries

Hannah had surgery yesterday.  A laproscopy to help diagnose endometriosis.  A sample was taken from the only site they found that seemed to be a problem.  Her bowel was adhered to the perinial lining thru a spot/adhesion that seemed to be endometriosis.  This could be the reason for her pain.  The adhesion was removed and the bowel was freed again.  A sample was taken from the site and in a few days we should know if it was endometriosis.  Regardless, we will start seeing a chronic pain counselor so that Hannah can hopefully manage the pains with minimal medicine but rather with a healthy diet.  She is recovering so fast!  And was even back at school today.  She has struggled with this pain for two years and hopefully we will soon know a diagnosis.

My mother-in-law Dorothy had open heart surgery today to correct a mitral valve defect and get her out of A-fib.  According to my hubby who is there right now, it was a 100% success.  Which is wonderful for Dorothy!  And for us because we just *love* her. 

I had taken the day off today to help Hannah but when she wanted to go to school at about 10am, my day turned into:

post office
two banks (mine and ptsa)
gym (including a hot sauna)
grocery store (16 cent tomato plants on the clearance gardening shelf at Haggens)
consignment store (found the perfect pair of water shoes for Tommy's chubby toes)
haircut and styled (mmm)
verizon store to port my contacts to another phone
cleaned my van
got ready for my baby turkey chicks coming tomorrow (sawdust, heat lamp, etc)
called life insurance company about Tommy having Ds and coverage (he is 100% guaranteed)
called home health place in seattle AGAIN about diapers for Tommy that are hypoallergenic
got horse clippers ready to take to my sister this weekend (she has a horse and we don't anymore)
made goat cheese with sage and rosemary garlic oil (wish I had wine in the house to go with that)
bought teacher gifts for last day of the twins preschool tomorrow (coffee cards)
cleaned refridgerator
did a couple loads of laundry
healthy dinner: lowfat turkey sausage, steamed mixed veggies and skinny cows for dessert

I cannot even believe I did all that.  Tommorow back to work ;)

Tommy Adventures