4th of July

We forewent the annual family reunion down south to take the older girls over to Mawmaw & Pawpaw's for the weekend. (And with gas prices, the closer location was more favorable...) Plus, since we sold our house in 3 days (more on this after we close next week) we had some little repairs we needed to get to after receiving the inspection report at 5pm on the eve of a holiday weekend.

So, here are some shots of yesterday as we visited with Mawmaw & Pawpaw at the Lake. They had festivities and were glad to have some kids to share it with.

Bit enjoys our first big tomato from our garden - we took it to share with Mawmaw & Pawpaw since only two people really like tomatoes at our house.

Bear got a flag tattoo on her face while the others were out riding a boat around the lake. It was a LONG boat ride, so she took a throw at the dunking booth and listened in on some Karaoke for a bit while we waited for the others to get back.

Sno-cones were a hit. Nice and cold on a very warm day.

Pawpaw let Little Buddy back up the golf cart on the way back to their house. Little Girl was keeping an eye out for him as he drove. He knows what he's doing, but he scares us to death. Oh, I hope the next 7 years go slowly before he's allowed to get his driver's license.

The kids did the little poppy thingies out on the driveway at Mawmaw & Pawpaw's house. Here's Little Buddy chasing Dad & Heidi with one.

Little Girl just stood there and threw all of her little bag one at a time on the ground in front of her.

Mawmaw & Little Girl played a few games of Uno. I think Little Girl won most of the games. She must have had a good teacher...

Heidi really enjoyed her turn to ride on the golf cart. She NEVER voluntarily gets into anything with wheels. EVER. She HATES to get into or out of the truck or van. We were amazed when she jumped up into the golf cart, hardly before it stopped. The only thing we can figure is that she enjoyed the thought of the wind blowing through her ears... On the other hand, maybe she's claustrophobic like Mom and Little Buddy...

Making faces... Bear

Making faces... Bit

Making face... Little Buddy

Making faces... Little Girl

Fireworks on the lake

I like the outlines of all the people sitting out on their docks on the water watching the fireworks.

A Week in DC

Dad's employee convention this year was in Washington DC. We took the oldest two on the trip and let them explore their nation's capitol. It was fun to see them enjoy the different things that interest them.

We stayed at the Marriott Wardman Park. It was an old hotel that had a new addition with a huge convention expansion. The best part was that it had an outdoor pool and an indoor Starbucks! Of course, we only ventured to both places twice while Dad was working...

Our first night in DC, we ate out with friends at a restaurant near the hotel, then hopped on the Metro (subway) to head to a Marine Jazz Band concert on the steps of the Capitol Building.

The Washington Monument as seen from the steps of the Capitol at sundown.

Dad & Bit on the Metro - this was obviously later in the week after everyone was a bit more comfortable with the mass transit system. (And after recovering from the frenzy that surrounded a fire in one of the tunnels on one of our transits...)

The Washington Monument from Bear and Bit's perspective looking up. Yes, the stones are two different colors. If you don't know why, you should - check it out here.

Such team work... They've been working out...

Bear and Bit in front of the White House... there's a story...

Long story short... (Really. This could be SO much longer...) On our way to an appointment tour at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving (just us girls), the fire incident occurred on the Metro, causing us to be dumped out two long stops from our hotel and 15 blocks from our appointment destination. We tried some alternate plans which included the White House (barricaded for several blocks around because of the Metro incident), Constitution Hall (closed because of a special event), Museum of History (closed due to renovation), National Archives (not open for another hour and already 200+ people in line), Ford Theatre (closed due to renovation) and even a department store (shopping's good for any ailment, right? - opening an hour late that morning for who knows what reason...!)

HOWEVER, we finally found ONE place open (besides the air conditioned souvenir shop with the restroom next door)...

The house where Lincoln died... Bear found it to be very interesting. She likes the old houses and museums like that. After that we even found a Starbucks. Life was good! AND the Metro was going again - at least half of it was. We waited over 30 minutes for a train going our way, but we finally got back to the hotel. And it was ONLY just before 11am by this time. We were so exhausted.

Dinner with the family down on the Potomac. Phillips Seafood Buffet was highly anticipated, but sorely disappointing...

Bear on her nightly phone call to her little sister and brother back at Mawmaw & Pawpaw's house.

Mom & Dad at the party at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

Bit & Bear with Christian artist TobyMac

Family shot - Mom, Bit, Dad & Bear - on our way out to do more touring

Trying to learn how to take cool pics with the new camera - not quite there yet, but it's fun anyway - the dome of the Capitol Building

The big party the last night in DC. This was the Superman room. I think it was full of kryptonite, though. Didn't quite get that. There were several themed rooms with all kinds of different foods and impersonators. Dolly Parton, Tina Turner and Barry White were on stage. If you didn't know better, you'd think they really were.

Next convention is in Orlando. We told the older two that the younger two get to go next time. Yeah, that idea didn't go over so well...

I finally made it to California - and BACK

I was praying that if California is ever going to fall off into the ocean, please don't let it by while I'm there for the first time. It didn't help that Dad says to me on his way out of the hotel room the first morning that if an earthquake comes, remember to get out of the building. Well, I was awake then, thank you very much.

Obviously we got back home safely and other than that it was a very nice trip. The weather was incredible. Absolutely perfect. We arrived back in Dallas to a "balmy..." something - I didn't catch the temperature because I was stuck on the word "balmy". For that, I was wanting to get back on the airplane and head back to CA.

This is where Dad had meetings each morning. No, really, he had meetings here each morning.

We went to Muir Woods - one of the redwood forests close to San Francisco. AWESOME trees! Dad got called a "tree hugger". He wouldn't "hug" anymore trees for me - perspective or not.

Dad at the Golden Gate Bridge leading into San Francisco. Even in May it was windy and chilly up on that hill looking down into the bay.

We met my cousin and her husband in SF for the day since they live fairly close to the city.

New Toy...

We decided it was time to branch out into the realm of SLR digital photography. It may take me all summer to read the users manual... I should have paid more attention in high school journalism. I vaguely remember talk of apperture, ISO and f-stop...

In the mean time, we're already enjoying immense improvement in photo quality! Such a difference in these pictures! Guess I'll have to get a bigger purse if I'm going to carry this camera around with me...

The knockout roses out front

Double impatiens in hanging baskets out back Day lillies in the backyard
And, of course, sweet Heidi. I think she's actually tired of having her picture taken. The look on her face here says, "enough already..."

Well, how about that?!

According to Scientific American, blogging is good for you.

Enough already!

Once you get her started on something...

Little Girl is about to have soup on her menu. If she loses any more teeth, she'll be gumming her food!
She has pulled 3 of the 4 teeth all by herself. #3 was pulled during her slumber party late Friday evening. #4 was pulled during school today. Enough already!

A Plethora of Passion

We have a very passionate backyard. I am in love with my Passion Flower Vine. I had to take some special pictures this week just in case she doesn't survive the weekend. As you can tell, we need a new fence... I hope to be able to take some survival pictures next week with a beautiful new fence behind her.



It is unbelievable the number of blooms on this vine! There are hundreds of blooms, spent blooms and buds about to bloom.








You can see these blooms surrounded by buds.

This shot shows some of the spent blooms as well.










The intricate details of these blooms are so amazing!

Bloodshot??

So, we were told Little Girl's eyes would be bloodshot for a week or so after the surgery. I'd like to rephrase those words. Let's make that "shot (full of) blood". Yes, I was prepared for "bloodshot", but this was a whole different level according to my expectations.

Here's a picture the evening after the surgery.

Here's a picture the day AFTER surgery - she looks much more lively...

Today, a week after surgery, I would definitely say her eyes are "very bloodshot".

At her post-op yesterday, the doctor said her eyes looked "appropriately red". And I could tell a difference in the alignment as he went through the normal routine of examining her eyes. The Hypertropia is definitely gone. (That's the thing where he said "this was the surgery to have if you're going to have eye surgery" because "this is a one-time-fix surgery".)


He said she looked great. We go back in another month to continue to check her nearsightedness, but he is very optimistic that she will have such a low prescription that he would prefer to keep her out of glasses a while longer since she's still so young. We'll confirm that at the end of May. It's weird seeing her out of glasses and not being upset that we can't find them anywhere... :-)

Now, as a type-A mom, I am still not sure I see "perfection" in her Strabismus issue. I saw her right eye turn in slightly a few times yesterday. Of course, it was AFTER her post-op appointment... Maybe it's just me. As far as I can tell (and the doctor said so yesterday), the reflection in both eyes is looking symmetrical. It's pretty amazing how they can tell exactly how to move those little eye muscles 3 little millimeters and know they've actually done such an incremental movement successfully.

"The Procedure Went Perfectly"

I guess all doctors say that whenever they possibly can, but it's always reassuring to hear those words from a doctor who is greeting you after some type of surgery on your baby.

After we got the other 3 kids off to school, we were off to our pre-op appointment with the doctor at his office.

Isn't it amazing how quickly you can get in and out of a doctor's office when you have plenty of time? We were in the office for all of about 20 minutes. And that included getting an agreeable post-op appointment scheduled and paying the doctor for the surgery he would be performing in 4 hours. Oh, and at her appointment this morning, the doctor could tell a difference since her last exam as both eyes were exhibiting signs of hypertropia. That was actually a relief for me because I worried that we would have to do this again if her left eye started showing signs AFTER he fixed the right eye for that today.

Funny thing happened, too. (ha ha) We walked into the office at the same time as a dad and son we know from church. The son was there for an exam and we told his dad were having surgery today. So comforting to hear from a family who has had FIVE strabismus surgeries the morning you're going in for your first... I have to think his case was much worse because he was diagnosed before he was one and our doctor's dad was his mom's doctor for the same condition.

SO, with all the time in the world, we headed for one of the nearby malls. Ice skating was on our potential agenda and we managed to put away an hour with a Wal-Mart detour to buy socks since none of us were wearing any. Unfortunately, on Wednesdays the ice rink doesn't open until 12:30. Every other week day (of course) it opens at 11am. Little Girl was highly disappointed, but we whiled away the time on the carousel and window shopping in various kid-friendly stores.

Dad even suggested a visit to Build-A-Bear and shocked Mom by letting Little Girl pick a bear to build. This would serve her well as the day wore on. She's not been particularly attached to a stuffed animal or anything, so her new little friend (Madison) was a great comfort to her on this day.

Madison and Little Girl are enjoying "Happy Juice" and "High School Musical 2". During her "Happy Juice" experience, she suddenly commented on the fact that all the little cubicle rooms were purple and she was hoping hers would be pink. Obviously, the juice was taking effect. Two of the ministers Mom works with came and prayed with us and visited for a bit while we waited.

The surgery had been delayed to 2pm and we were back with her in the recovery room by about 2:40. All the nurses commented on how great she had done and she was waking up perfectly and they were so impressed with how well she was doing. I'm sure they say that as much as possible, but it's encouraging no matter.

After Little Girl was able to drink a satisfying amount of her water and a bit of popsicle, they said she was ready to go. They wheeled her out in a wheelchair, but she was disappointed to have no recollection of it. She slept most of the way home with a cool wet cloth over her eyes.

She rested comfortably (well, as comfortable as you can wearing sunglasses ... although, she IS conked out here) until she decided she was ready for some food. She's out walking around the block with Dad and Heidi at the moment, so I think that means she's feeling fairly well.

Even though we had been warned about her bloodshot eyes and her eyes watering a bit of blood, I really wasn't prepared for how bad they would look. Her eyes are itching her a bit and she wants to rub them. They're weeping blood much more than I expected and it's bothering her so she wants to wipe it away. I don't want to hurt her eyes with the camera flash, but I'm going to try to get a picture soon of how her eyes look. They aren't looking quite as dilated as they were earlier this afternoon, so hopefully I'll be able to get a picture this evening so we can really tell how much better they look in the morning.

Thank you for all the prayers for Little Girl and everyone today. I remember being much more apprehensive with her endoscopy 2 years ago, so I appreciate your prayers for our peace. Let me also commend the Pediatric Surgery Center. If your doctor is part of that group and your child ever needs a procedure that can be done there, they are SUPER.

Eye Surgery

After a visit with a 2nd opinion pediatric ophthalmologist, we've decided to go ahead with Little Girl's eye surgery. She's scheduled for April 23rd at the pediatric surgery center over by Prestonwood. Surgery should be brief and we might even be at church that night. Little Girl's eyes will probably be a bit bloodshot, but other than that she shouldn't have any side effects to deal with. Pray for her (and us) - that she'll be quiet and peaceful before and after the procedure and that the doctor will be successful with the surgery. They will address the strabismus in both eyes and the hypertropia in one or both eyes. Lots of detaching and reattaching muscles at one time.
(Additional info on the eye surgery here)







(This picture was taken last fall at Mom's college homecoming football game.)

Moving on up the Growth Curve

Bit is celebrating an almost 3-inch growth spurt since school started last Fall. She now towers over her little sister at a whopping 4 feet 8 inches. She has inched up in the growth percentile for other kids her age - she's up to the 4th percentile now. (In case you need a really clear picture - Bit is short.)

As you can tell from this photo, Bear is disappointed in her clear loss of "big-sister" status.

Bit will be 13 this summer and Bear will be 11 in a few weeks. Oh, my goodness, where does the time go!?

Changing Faces...again

Last February faces changed as Bit got her braces off and Bear got glasses. (see post here)

Faces change again as Bit gets contacts and Bear gets her braces off.

Smiles all around...

Bear brushes her teeth 5 times a day and smiles at everyone.

Bit gets up 30 minutes earlier and smiles once she finally pries her eyes open to get those wonderful bits of plastic stuck on her eyeballs so everyone can see her pretty brown eyes.

Bit will begin phase 2 of her orthodontics later this year - more braces. Bear will lose more teeth very soon. Changes never stop.

Daddy's Girl