Travel, Birthdays and Lazy Summer Days

Another busy week has come and gone.  Owen and I headed back to Palo Alto late on the 20th.  We had a quick clinic visit on the 21st and we were back on the flight home in less than 24 hours.  No medicine changes and he looks fantastic.  His weight is still down to 50lbs but he'll catch up eventually. We get another two week break and will head back on July 4th for biopsy.  I'm just a little bit exhausted, but it's all worth it.

Last summer we used to joke and say "one day we'll look back on this long hospital admission and wonder how we got through it"... now it feels like so long ago.  We are so very grateful! 

 My birthday was Friday and we didn't do anything crazy.  Joe's Farm Grill is just down the road and they do free birthday meals so we had to do that.  Their espresso shake is so amazing!  These three munchkins make everyday so fun.  I'm going to be so sad when school starts. 

 We went to Olive Garden (Owen's choice) for my birthday dinner.  We hadn't been in forever and it turns out two entrees can feed our entire family of five with leftovers.  It was a great birthday and it's time to reverse the clock.  I'm 38 now and I have so much I want to do before 40!

 We have been dog sitting for Larissa's fam while they are on vacation for three weeks.  Sam loves Logi, until Logi chases him around with the ball popper or just annoys him in general.  Sam found a green ball, buried it, then Logan found it.  Sam was playing with it inside and as soon as he looked away, Logi grabbed it.. poor Sam.  He gets rewarded in plenty of food Logan drops on the floor.  Owen and Kam just pet him and cuddle him.  No crazy ideas, I am not an animal person.  Maybe one day. 

We have a pretty lazy week ahead of us.  I'm trying to clean out closets and just get stuff done around the house. Most of our summer days involve the boys running around in their underwear, toys sprawled out all over the house, plenty of "iced lollies", late afternoon naps and then Daddy is home. I am soaking it all in.

Summer Living

This summer has been busy!  I find myself taking a step back and soaking in every little moment.  Kam had Summer Scrubs through U of A this week.   It was a week long medical school camp and she LOVED it!!  They really gave these kids a direction and explained the journey to medical school.  She did intubation, ultrasound, CPR, sutures, dissections, attended lectures and made friends.  It's a competitive process to be accepted and we are so proud of this girl.  Of course she won the award for 'Best Jokes' on the last day because she is her Father's daughter.   

Logi has been a busy boy. He is outgrowing his naps, just like all our kids do by about 28 months.  He still needs them and usually falls asleep when he just can't keep his eyes open another minute.  We had a few visitors and friends come by this week.  Owen had an echo and cardiology appointment in Phoenix this week and all looks well!  It's just been a busy week for us all and we wouldn't have it any other way.

On Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day and our 18th Wedding Anniversary. How has it been 18 years??  We also celebrated birthdays this week and it was a good excuse for the kids to make us chocolate cake. We are so lucky to have such great men in our lives, especially my husband who works hard to support our family, spends quality time with each of our kiddos, and respects my role as a mother and wife.  We love you babe.

I say it all the time, but I am so grateful that my kids get to grow up with their cousins.  They all play so well together now that they are older.  No more bickering and fighting over toys.  Also, I am in love with our play room!  It's a dream to have adults in one area of the house having conversations and the kids off in the playroom keeping busy. 

It's a new week and it's a HOT one.  We are having record breaking heat in desert.  I don't know why it hasn't phased us yet.  We go outside, run errands, drink lots of water and it's not that bad.  Owen and I are headed out to Palo Alto today and crossing our fingers that our flight isn't one of the cancelled ones. :)  It's just another Summer in the desert.

Oceanside

When my in laws mentioned they had reserved their time share in Oceanside for the weekend and invited us along, how could we say no?  The kids and I decided last minute to pack our bags and make a weekend of it.  Carson is in the thick of their busy season at work so it was just the four of us.  The six hour drive couldn't have gone better, my kids are a dream in the car.  We listened to lots of crazy music and I like to annoy my children by belting out the lyrics, usually not the correct ones.  We had a lot of fun!

 

We arrived on Friday afternoon and ate dinner on the harbor with Monica, Todd, John and Tyler.  My in laws were taking the older boys out on the deep sea fishing trip for the weekend so we had the time share to ourselves.  We stayed out late and slept in.  We spent plenty of time at the beach.  It was overcast and a perfect 68 degrees.  Logi hated the beach at first and kept trying to walk back to the car saying "home, we go home".  Then he learned to love it and wouldn't stop talking about "da beach."   Kam and Owen were in their element.  They love the ocean!

 

We grilled dinner at the time share, relaxed, watched a little tv and enjoyed the cooler temps.  The trip was short and we were on the road Sunday driving home.  These kids are the easiest to travel with.  Just give them a water bottle and some loud music and they are content for hours.  We made it home in time to spend the evening with Carson.  Kam picked the movie for movie night and we settled in with Beauty and the Beast.

 

We are so happy.  Blessed.  Thankful.   

 

Biopsy 8 and Swimming Fun

Well we made it to Palo Alto and back this week and it was another success.  Owen's biopsy showed zero rejection and his echo continues to look fantastic.  We dropped his Lasix (diuretic) in half and we started him back on Asprin (blood thinner).  His Prograf level was finally within range on .1mg, which is a drop.  I had the LPCH pharmacy compound his new RX of Prograf and we went back to his regular dose of .4mg and will draw labs again tomorrow morning.  My prediction is that his level will skyrocket again... we shall see.  So thankful for Owen's patient attitude and that he is so chill for all these labs and procedure.  He is a gem!  We had a great time traveling and we will followup in Palo Alto in two weeks, but no Biopsy for a month!

Owen loves the VR headsets in preop.  We were second case and the first case had some complications so we waited a long while to go back to the cath lab. 

He was out and back in recovery in about an hour and ready to take his IV out (always by himself). 

After a quick lunch, we headed to the newly renovated, old RMH, that we called home in the summer of 2013.  Owen explored and loved that it pretty much looked the same.  They painted, changed the flooring and updated the furnishings, but it was the same house that we fell in love with.  A lot of our favorite families moved to the old house when it opened up so we hung out there for a while and visited.  Owen loved the new backyard and we can't wait for the playtown to open up.

Old school RMH families.. remember this was the giant tree!?  They also turned the old gym into a hair salon.  It's pretty cool!

We were happy to come home!  We always miss our family and these two missed their mom and bro.

I found this awesome pool at Costco for $30 and the boys LOVE it.  I keep it under the covered patio and they go out there and splash their afternoons away.  It's 110 in the desert already and it's a great alternative to a $20k pool this summer.  We have lots of family around and there will be plenty of swimming happening, including lessons, in the coming weeks.

We are happy and life is good.  We are taking a spontaneous trip to the beach this weekend while Daddy catches up on work at home.  I can't wait to lay in the sand and watch my babies play in the waves.  We are SO grateful to our donor families and think about them all the time.  Happy beginning of Summer (almost). 

Hello June.

First of all, HAPPY JUNE!  It's a big month around here with Anniversaries and Birthdays.. so fun!  We have been busy enjoying Summer and it's already so hot in the desert.  We have a long list of things we want to do around the new house like painting, decorating (not my thing) and add artificial grass to our desert backyard landscaping. 

Owen had a great transplant clinic visit with Dr Z this week.  "You've got a good looking heart!" The echo is beautiful and all things look good.  His weight is going downhill fast.  Owen and I haven't used the gtube in over five weeks and he is trying so hard to keep up, but his weight is down to 51lbs.  It's such a bummer because he tries so hard to eat enough, but it's just never enough.  He gets hungry, but just doesn't consume enough.  We'll talk to our favorite psychologists and nutritionist at Stanford about it this week and maybe they'll have some ideas for us.  Worst case scenario, we start using his gtube a little more throughout the day until we can get him bulked up.  He is just so thin.. but those cheeks!!!

The only other issue we have been dealing with is the darn Prograf level.  He is on .2mls twice daily, which is like a drop of the .5mg solution.  His levels are still in the high teens.  The team and I finally just decided to call it a bad compound from the pharmacy.  Frequent labs have been going perfectly and we are so thankful for wonderful lab techs.  Just need to get that level lower.  A high level can be hard on the kidneys and thankfully his are still looking great.  So many little blessings.

I caught Carson's junk this week and felt pretty ick.  We still made it out to Backyard Taco (literally in our backyard) this week for Taco Tuesday with my parents and Gigi.  The boys loved it.. but didn't really eat anything.  Nothing new.  How do toddlers grow??  I swear Logi doesn't eat more than a couple bites here and there but he's not starving. 

I pulled out the water table this week for Logi and Carson hooked up the new hose.. he was mindblown.  Hours of fun with buckets, shovels, dirt and water.

On June 1st, Lego released a bunch of new sets.  Owen had been saving up every gift card he received in the hospital for his birthday and a few from Christmas.  We stopped by the Lego Store after cardiology this week and he was so thrilled to pick out the sets he wanted most.  I couldn't resist buying little Bro the Cars Lego set that came out.  He LOVES it!! "Race Carrrrrss... Dump TRUCK" (not really a dump truck but whatever)

PS.. I promise you my boys own clothes, they just don't wear them.

Kam has been clean eating and working out everyday.  She finds workouts on Youtube and hits it hard.  She feels so much better after two weeks.  She did it all on her own to be healthy and we are super proud of her.  It's amazing at 17 that two weeks of working out results in visual ab muscles.  To be young again.  Kam and Logi made cookies for the neighbors today.  I haven't met any neighbors yet and it's killing me.  Carson got to go to neighborhood bbqs while I was gone and meet everyone so I'm just going to be that neighbor that drops off cookies and says hello.

This little munch is just the sweetest little boy with the ability to wake a household with his 5am tantrums.  I have never had a child throw a tantrum yet which is just luck.  Logi broke that trend.  He's not mad, or frustrated, he just gets emotional and I can't figure him out.  I'm trying to find a trend.  He will be perfectly fine until he's not.  It's almost always set off when he wakes up, whether it be naptime or in the morning.  If anyone has ideas.. I'm all ears.  It's not night terrors, he has had a couple of those and this isn't the same.  I'll figure this baby out.  Mostly he is the sweetest, snuggly guy.  He plays hard and naps hard. 

That's a wrap for the week.  I finally got to the dentist for a good cleaning and a crown placed.  Then to the salon to get a much needed refresh on my curls.  Carson built the boys dressers and their room is coming along nicely.  We've been snuggling on the sectional each night catching up on all the shows we missed this year.  Being home has been wonderful!!!  Owen and I fly out to Palo Alto tomorrow.