Lots of catching up to do - pics

On Palm Sunday the kids did a few special songs at the front of the church.

They came in waving their palm leaves. When Vi got to the front she didn't want

to put her palm leaf down and they had to convince her to lay it down. She stood

up on the stage with the other kids and waved both little hands at us while yelling,

"Hi Mommy. Hi Mommy. Mommy, I can see some people behind you." Most of the

congregation laughed at her while I sat in the pew smiling and crying. It was

so precious to see her standing up there waving at us with both arms.

We participated in the egg dying ritual. Violet had a great time stirring,

dipping, wiping, peeling, and even eating the eggs.

And we hid eggs and had baskets (thanks to Grandpa and Grandma P.).

We hid about 20 eggs and each egg contained 1 M&M - hey, they are lucky I

didn't use Cheerios.

Here are the girls almost ready for church.

These dresses from Grandma Janet were very pretty but since it was chilly we had to wear sweaters.

We have a picture of Violet from last year about this time (and Erica, it's another Shaklee box).

Violet has this idea that Anara is a capable helper. She said, "Anara, can you help me put my clothes on?" And Anara of course replies, "Yeah Violet, I can help you."

Violet and Victoria playing on one of the nice days.

Vi loves drinking hot tea.

Anara found a new place to hide.

Creating art.

She strapped herself into the doll stroller and then stood up.

March Madness - sounds like marshmallows

Daddy and Violet were working on their brackets tonight as you can see below. Violet thought that March Madness sounds like marshmallows, Drake sounds like Professor VonDrake (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), and Georgetown sounds like Curious George. I think those are as good of reasons as any to pick teams.

Songs for your Saturday

This morning the girls woke up in a great mood and treated us to a couple songs broadcast over the monitor. It was a pleasant way to wake up (much better than screaming, crying, or whining). Here are the Anara renditions of the songs.

Twinkle Twinkle


Jingle Bells

A couple updates

Anara is doing well. You would never know we spent Wed. at the hospital. Her surgeon was able to break up a large stone that had attached itself to the end of her suprapubic and remove the old suprapubic. He removed a small pocket of infection and put a new suprapubic tube in the center of her reservoir. He also looked into her channel with a scope. He found that a false passage had been created and the catheter had two holes to go through to get into the reservoir. He removed the tissue separating the two holes and made one larger opening. We are hoping that is the final fix.

Also, I changed the blog to private for a second but when I went to input the email addresses it said that there were too many readers. Well, there is no way that we can decrease the number of readers that significantly so I am going to try and find a way to keep it out here and be somewhat anonymous. Is that possible? You might see some changes to the blog over the next few days (names removed, places removed, links removed) and maybe it will culminate with a domain change but that remains to be seen.

We are home

Thanks for the prayers. We are home tonight and doing well. I will write the details of the procedure tomorrow.

ggvjhhhhhuhhhhuhuhuoll.,bccccccc

That is goodnight from Anara.

Surgery this afternoon...

This morning Anara woke up whining and uncomfortable. During the night her catheter fell out of her stoma and since her suprapubic isn't working, she was completely full. Nate and I tried to get the catheter in but we were unable to force it through, and so we went to the hospital for an early morning visit. Anara's MD was able to use a special catheter and drain her reservoir.

Right now the catheter is taped in to prevent the same problem from occurring again. This afternoon we will go to the hospital and Anara will have another procedure to remove the non-working suprapubic and place another emergency tube. We are hoping that the channel issue corrects itself but if it fails to fix itself over the next few months we might end up with another surgery to fix the channel or explore some other options.

Anara will have this small procedure around 5:00pm. Please pray for everything to go well as far as the placement of the new tube and removal of the old. Pray that she does great with the anesthesiology. Pray that her channel fixes itself and we have no more issues with being able to insert her catheter.

Thanks!

Suprapubic not so suprapubicky

Anara's suprapubic is hanging on for some reason. Her urologist tried to remove it last week in the clinic and it would not pull out. It should have pulled out easily but apparently it has somehow become lodged in the last 5 months. I am not sure what the plan is at this point. It has started to flush easily so maybe we will hold onto it for a while longer.

Anara saw her physical therapist this morning. She is going to wear orthotics for a while so that her bones develop in a better position. She is doing great with movement considering she really just started walking again in December. The orthotics should help with her pronation. We are hoping to see her start jumping soon and walking with less rigidity.

LAST CALL

Okay, I really am going to take the privatizing plunge this week. If you haven't emailed and I don't already have your email, send it to rsvphublog@gmail.com I will send out invitations as soon as we change the blog settings to private. Unfortunately this will require a sign-in screen, but it will also save me anxiety in wondering who is viewing our blog.

Go Granny Go

Here is a picture of my grandma that appeared in the evening newspaper yesterday. Grandma has saved many keepsakes over the years and these are some cards she received when she was about 5 years old from the newspaper. Fortunately, I am the beneficiary of many of these great antiques and memories. I think it's amazing that she has saved these things and that they are still in great condition.