The Puddles

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” Wicked is now my new favorite musical.  It is even better than Cats!”  Madie tells me excitedly on the phone.

We gave Madie tickets to see the musical Wicked in Austin for her birthday.  She has been so excited about going.  I think Chris won the lottery by getting to take her!  But he loves musicals too.  I think we will be hearing the songs from this musical for a long time!

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“Nobody calls him that name. Only Grandma is allowed to call him Cecil!” says Madie with grave concern in her voice.

Ben is writing a paper about his Grandpa Lake and Madie was REALLY worried about using his real first name. She thought papa would be angry. I told her that if he got really mad and killed Ben, then there would be one less grandkid and Madie would get more love and attention. She really liked that idea!

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We started the morning at 2:00, then 3:00, then again at 4:00, and finally at 5:00 we let ourselves get up and going in order to leave by 6:00am.  Our first appointment was with the echo lab.  The ultrasound tech took over an hour to get pictures of Ben’s heart.  Of course that makes Chris and I nervous.  I mean really nervous.  This special attention to details made us late for our cardiology appointment, which made us late for  hypertension, which finally made us late for labs.  Ugh!

We finally made it to see Dr. Altman and she starts like this . . . “Here is the good news.”  Which implied to Chris and I that this would be followed up with some bad news.  She gets to the end of the good news and says, “So it’s a good day!!!”  Chris and I look at each other with shock/surprise and Chris says, “Why didn’t you tell us that to begin with?”  The doctor apologized and said that next time she will start out that way!!  We were so thrilled to hear all of it!!

The Good News

There are no significant changes to the leak in the aortic valve.  He still has a moderate leak, but he can live this way for a while before intervention is needed.  There is a slight bump where the subaortic membrane was, but she believes this is a residual bump.  Her only area of concern is that there is some slight narrowing of the sinotubular junction (which is where the surgeon places a Dacron patch at the last surgery). The area is not large enough to support Ben’s mass (body weight), but at this moment there does not seem to be any back pressure in the heart from this narrowing of the aorta (which is good). There is still some leaking in the mitral valve, but again it is still not getting worse.

Ben can still be in gymnastics (but she would rather see him on the swim team), but if he started doing competition level gymnastics, she would have concerns!  Ben can go to camp with strict supervision.  And most importantly, Ben gets to have a treadmill test at his next visit.

She is not ready to release Ben from seeing him every six months.  Ben has a bad history of his health taking a dramatic turn in a six month period of time.  So she is too nervous about letting him go yet!  But she is letting him change his ace inhibitor from a twice a day to a once a day (same dose different delivery method).

The hypertension clinic saw Ben and agreed that Ben can change his meds to a once a day.  We will have to watch him closely while the transition takes place, but this will help Mommy with delivery (if Ben falls asleep early, I have to wake him up for his meds.  I will not wake him up for fish pills and melatonin!) She thought his vitals were slightly elevated, but it could be because he has been on the same dose for two years and he might be starting to outgrow his current dose.

So all in all.  A very awesome day.  A great relief.  We celebrated by starting our lunch with dessert first.  It was a great way to start the meal.  We finally managed to get home before 4pm.  Papa and Grandma Lake held down the fort while we were in Houston.  They set the bar pretty high for us.  The kids got to school on time, well dressed, and with a good breakfast.  Madie informed me of my shortcomings!!  The girls enjoyed their special time with the grandparents.  We were thankful that we didn’t have to worry about them on a day like today.

We are grateful to God for our day today.  He blessed us with good news.  He blessed us with many friends and family members who kept Ben and the family in their prayers today.  It is certainly time to celebrate.  We can party for six more months until we see Dr. Altman again.  I’ll take today and pray that it is repeated many  times over!!

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I’ve had this nervous energy for a couple of days.  I was so tired (only averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night) that my head was too cloudy to really think about why I felt this way.  So I crashed last night (knew I needed to go to bed when I couldn’t add/subtract properly, read, or even remember the names of items . . . like milk), and woke up thinking more clearly.  This was good.  For several days, I have that kind of “hyper focus” energy.  It is helping me to get stuff done, but making me snippy in the process.  I feel bad about that.  Then the phone call came this morning reminding me that Ben has a doctor’s appointment on Monday.  Ugh.  This is reason for my angst. Ben has his six months checkup at Texas Children’s Hospital.  These visits can go one of two ways. 1.  Awesome – everything is status quo + we see the doctor again in six months = six more months of freedom from bad health stuff.  2.  Not good – things aren’t going well + we need to see you again soon = unwanted health drama.

I dread these visits.  I am surprised how I only started thinking about this visit this week.  I think that I getting more use to it.   But a parent really does have to gear themselves up for this kind of visit.  Even the  strongest parent has to do some personal prep in order to be as strong as the Rock of Gibraltar.  I pray for good news and prepare for bad.  Seems like that is pessimistic and wrong but I promise that I am optimistic and I really do think that we will hear that Ben is fine.

So we have a busy weekend to keep us occupied.  We are cleaning tonight.  Art classes in the morning.  Science convention in the afternoon.  Then church and Super Bowl Party/Small Group Bible Study on Sunday.  Daddy is gone tonight and tomorrow for a church council retreat, but we will have fun without him.  And some time in between I need to spend a lot of time in my office  . . . working on work. Hopefully I will get it all done.  But working towards that goal of getting it all done will keep my mind for what may come on Monday.

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She had her first violin lesson today.  Ms. Jenna is young, sweet, and soft spoken . . . perfect for Madie.  In fact, she gave Madie some theory homework tonight and Madie already finished the homework!!  Madie learned all about the parts of her violin.  I think I learned a lot too!  Eventhough Madie wasn’t feeling her best today, she was all smiles during the lesson.  I am so proud of her!  The violin was certainly not my suggestion.  In fact, I worked hard to persuade her otherwise.  But she was not to be persuaded.  She really wanted that violin.

The downside of today . . . we have to buy/rent a different violin.  The two violins that Santa gave to Madie are too big.  Plus the smallest one is poorly made.  The finger board is at a bad angle the pegs fit poorly in the holes so the violin will be difficult to tune.  Essentially our basic violin would work best as a decoration on the wall.  Dang.  We were unable to avoid what we were dreading to do.  Dad spent an hour  stringing and tuning the violin only for us to be told today that it was all wrong.  Ms. Jenna had to spend 20 minutes of our lesson time fixing the violin.

In the end, Madie was still all smiles.  She was just happy to get started.  She will actually get to try to play the violin next week, but only with her left hand.  No bow yet.  Soon enough she will get to do more.  I just hope that she sticks with it.  And not just because she looks lovely with a violin in her hand!

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January is suppose to be the slow-down recuperate-from-the-holidays month.  It hasn’t quite turned out that way!  We’ve . . .

• put away the holiday decorations
• found new homes for all of the new toys
• visited doctors
• planned the next six months of Madie’s troop
• planned the next six months of Ainsley’s troop
• researched and set up violin lessons
• visited Austin to see mom get her award!!
• made the trip educational since we were missing school
• sold Girl Scout cookies
• sold more Girl Scout cookies
• dealt with other issues (not all bad) regarding Girl Scout cookies
• organized Madie’s closet
• started small group meetings back up (there is planning involved but the great outcome outweighs the work)
• organized, registered and purchased almost $1000 worth of tickets and events for two girl scout troops
• taught Sunday School
• worked (and still playing catchup from changing to a new program)
• stressed over church life (again not all bad but just a lot of sad)
• reinvigorated the children to like school again
• started gearing up for huge state tests for 4th grade
• loved on children
• supported husband
• attempted to clean office
• finally convinced husband to fix brand new car that has not worked right since we bought it!  (he even cleaned it up for me!!)
• volunteered in three different classrooms three days a week
• went shopping
• planned menus
• cleaned house
• made breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day
• convinced Ainsley that she needs to go to school
• convinced Ben that homework is not as hard as he thinks it is
• convinced Madie to go outside to play more and to read less
• signed up Ben and Ainsley for gymnastics once a week
• signed Ainsley up for art classes
• remind husband the he is truly gifted in the doing the Lord’s work (eventhough right now his ministry seems to consist more in dealing with budgets, reports, and calendars . . . which are important but probably not part of the job description that Jesus used when recruiting his disciples)
• worked some more.
• tried to set a new bed time of before midnight.
• ran errands, errands, and more errands.
• was a single mom all week while Daddy was at the Theological Conference and then spent a few extra days doing sermon prep for the next few weeks

January has not been slow enough.  Starting next week, we have afterschool activities every day after school and events almost every weekend.  And soon enough Lent will start, then Easter comes, and school will end and the children will be home for the summer.  We are already planning our beach vacation for the summer  . . . in January.  I am stressed thinking about everything.  Chris comes home today and we have survived.  He is coming home and then the kids and I are taking 30 other girls and their families to see Annie tonight.  Then tomorrow we are taking another 25 girls and family members to see the Harlem Globetrotters.  On Sunday we go to church and then I spend all day prepping ourselves and the house for a week of busyness.  My blood pressure is high and Ainsley has a mysterious rash, but I told her the rash had to wait until next week because I don’t have time to take her to the doctor.  But geez . . . my lunch break is over and I need to get back to work!  So back to the grindstone!!

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Obviously they are not thrilled about being pious on Christmas, but the day of the Lord’ birth landed on a Sunday.  So off we went!!  Daddy decided at the last minute that it was ok for the kids to wear their pajamas.  So the younger two did.  The eldest decided to change he clothes.  It was nice being with our church family that morning.  The kids were anxious to get back home to open  more presents.  They only got to open their stockings before we left!

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We went to Friendswood for our final Christmas party.  We hung out with the Grace side of the family.  The kids enjoyed their cousins again.  It is nice to see all of our family over a two day period.  I was tuckered after this Christmas though.  I think my Christmas joy had about run out!  But being with family through it all makes it worth it!

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All he wants to do is fly!  He made his Aunt Katherine’s Day!!!

As the other kids opened their presents, we heard the back door open.  Gordon was trying to go outside so he could practice his flying!  It was great!  Uncle Chris helped him out by lifting him up so he could take off.

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