What a Month!

It has been FOREVER since I took time to write on here...So much has happened...



Most importantly the trip to Austin was very much worth it! Lauren is back to feeling good, eating good and sleeping good! The enzymes are working and she seems like she is back to 100%. Basketball has picked back up and her coaches have all mentioned that they are once again seeing the "old Lauren", which is great!

Kara turned 2!!! It's hard to believe. She is definitely into everything and is giving all of us a run for our money! She still isn't talking a whole lot, but we are working on it. Of course, being two her favorite word is "no!"...It doesn't matter what the question is. "Kara do you want some milk?" "NO!" and then she takes it and is off after a quick "TAY TWO". You can ask her how old she is and she will tell you 2...and is back to spelling her name if you start out with the "K" and just have to add the "R" in the middle...of course that only leaves her saying "A" two times, but hey, we consider that spelling around here!

Brooke had kind of a scary night this past month. When we were stationed at Sill she had a seizure. At the time we thought it was because she had fallen and bonked her head pretty good earlier in the day. Then when she was 3 1/2 she had another seizure. She woke up on a Wednesday this past month and said that she felt like she was going to have a seizure. I thought she said "fever" but then when I asked her what made her think that she described the day in detail that she had her last seizure. Well she didn't have it on Wednesday and I was relieved once everyone was in bed that she had not. Thursday morning she woke up and said that she still felt like she was going to have it. Thursday went great, she fell asleep on the couch that evening and then around 11:15 she had it. My Dad came over and stayed with Lauren and Kara while my Mom drove Brooke and I out to Mercy's ER. They did a ct scan and it came back clear meaning that there was no tumor. They scheduled us a follow up appointment for an EEG. The EEG was quite the experience. They needed Brooke to be sleep deprived....usually the kids beg to stay up late, this night Brooke was begging for me to please let her go to sleep! Brian was actually home for his 2 week break from his CGSC course at Ft Leavenworth and he was able to go in and stay with her during the EEG. I'll have to try and get the pictures off of his cell phone to post. They are hilarious! Brooke has what appears to be 100 different wires attached to her head. We are still waiting to get in for her appointment with the pediatric neurologist. Hopefully everything will turn out well. I am just thankful that she was able to tell me that she felt like she was going to have the seizure. The warning made it not as scary.

Brian's Command Staff General College (CGSC) class had a two week break and we thought we would spend it relaxing out at the lake on the boat with the girls...We weren't so lucky. I had to have surgery on my right knee instead. I was glad to be able to do it while he was here to help out....I had torn the cartilage and meniscus. The doctor squeezed my surgery in while Brian was home so that I would have some help while I was recovering. The day of surgery was a little crazy. Before they did my surgery they gave me an antibiotic that I was allergic to. I was laying there in the area that they take you to before surgery and started telling Brian that their sheets were sooo itchy! Then everything started to itch. Brian tried to convince me that they were just giving me saline and that it was in my head but it just continued to get worse and worse! I now understand how people that are cracked up on meth or whatever drug makes you itch can scratch holes in their skin and not care! It was horrible!!!! Brian decided to go grab my nurse after he looked at my face and it was covered with whelps and I looked like I had just had the tar beaten out of me! Everything was itching like crazy!!!! I had Brian scratching my back and I was scratching my head, ears, army, everything that I could reach and scratch!!! My ears have finally healed from where I scratched them too hard and actually cut my skin with my nails....It was not fun! They gave me something to stop the itching and the next thing Brian told me was that I was telling him that we needed to go buy some chips, salsa and nuts to take up to my Dad in the hospital....strange! My knee was worse than they originally thought and they had to shave off part of my knee bone. OUCH!!!! The humorous part was when they thought I could stay on crutches with 3 hooligans running circles around me at home. Thank Goodness for ICE! As long as I stop and prop it up with my ice pouch I don't seem to hurt too much. The pain killers worked, but they basically sent me to laa-laa land and that isn't a good thing when you are supposed to be in charge of a small circus. I just took them the first couple of days and then gave up on them. Not only did they send me to laa-laa land, but I was having a small allergic reaction to one of them and so I had to take Benadryl along with it to keep the itching at bay. That is for the birds! No Thank You! Hopefully that is it for surgeries for me. Not Fun.

While all of the surgery fiasco's were going on my Dad was in the hospital. His blood pressure medication wasn't working properly and it caused him to build up fluid around his lungs. They think they have fixed the problem...hopefully they have. I promise not to take him a bunch of salty snack (chips, nuts, etc.) when it is a blood pressure problem causing fluid to build up. He goes back to the cardiologist here in a couple of weeks to have a stress test. If he passes that he will then go and have his surgery to reconnect his intestines. That surgery cannot happen fast enough for him. I know he must be so ready for it!

Those of you that know my parent's and have been to their house know Donner. He has been having major problems with his hips and back legs going out on him for quite awhile. He had not seemed to be in much pain until the last few months. He passed away this past week. It was a very sad day for all of us. Donner was Blitzen's brother. Blitzen was the first rottweiler that Brian and I had when we were first married. Brian and I were so attached to Blitzen that we had him cremated when he died. Being military and not being in Edmond at the time we have just kept his ashes with us in each house that we have lived in...That may seem strange to some, but he was our baby before our babies...His mother wouldn't feed him so I would feed him every two hours around the clock for the first month or so of his life. We almost lost him a couple of times. I remember a long night at my parent's house when Brian was at Ft Lewis. We didn't think he was going to make it. I remember my Dad walking into John's old bedroom where I was sleeping after Blitzen made a loud yelping noise. I had been trying to get him to go to the bathroom all day. He was hungry and would eat, but wouldn't go potty. He yelped and then pottied and I knew he was going to make it. I don't know who was happier, my Dad or me. My parent's decided to cremate Donner and we are going to bury them together under the tree in my parent's backyard. It just seems fitting. We'll miss you Donner Boy, but we are all so happy you aren't hurting and are able to once again romp and play with your brother!

Many have asked about our next duty assignment...WE STILL DON'T KNOW! UGH!!!!! Typical Army style, hurry up, wait, and just don't make any plans! Brian graduates CGSC this December. It's almost August and we still don't know. We've put in our requests (one being Germany~I'm dying to go back), but we also know that there is a HUGE possibility that Brian will do another tour in Iraq....or possibly Afghanistan. If that ends up being the case we are just thankful that the girls will have the stability of being near family and the friends that they have made here in Edmond. We'll keep you posted. Field Artillery Branch is supposed to be going to Ft Leavenworth the first week of August and that is when the guys are guessing they will let them know. If Brian does end up going we feel that this time with him up at Leavenworth has helped prepare the girls for the separation. It would have been so hard to go from seeing him everyday with the ROTC hours to him being gone for a 12 month deployment tour. A good friend of ours, Tim Rodgers will leave here in the next week for Afghanistan. He joins many of our other friends that are currently in Iraq or Afghanistan to the deployed status. Please continue to pray for all of our military and their families that are apart. It isn't an easy task at all.