Wednesday, August 26, 2009

How are we Loading?

When I went to the Council Meeting, it was brought to my attention that our page takes forever to load. I have removed somethings to try to lessen load time. Are you having problems loading it? or seeing anything? Please if you are let me know, how long does your load time take? I love Lily's blog being pretty, but I also want you to be able to read it and see it...who would have thought?

Let me know through your comments. Our blog here is so you can keep up with us, which you can't do if the page isn't loading for you.

Hope you all like the new up-do, I am lucky to have such great friends that can do such cool things. Thanks Aundrea, you did a fabulous job.Love Hugs and Blessing
Jenna

Friday, August 21, 2009

Ethan Earned his Angel Wings

Oh baby Ethan, you will be missed so much. Ethan put up a long hard fight for 6 months, but his little heart could not take anymore, and as of this morning at 1am, his little heart gave up and said enough. He now is whole and in no pain, but the rest of his family and friends now grieve his loss.

Until we meet again Ethan, watch over all of us. Stay near to your mommy and daddy, for they already miss you so.

Our prayers are with the entire Skidmore family, please stop by their page to read about Ethan's courageous story.

Love Hugs and Blessings
Jenna

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Colorful Explorations

Lets get this show on the road, shall we?

Lily is such a goober, she loves to color.....and she can do it well....on my wall that is. She can't color on paper anymore then I can lick my elbow. But color she tried and adorable she was.


So I know you all want to know what was said during Lily's echo, but I will hold you off for a moment longer to tell you how big my piggy-potamous is. She is weighing in at a respectable 27lbs 3oz, and towers at an amazing 32 1/2" inches tall. She is McLaughlin built, strong and sturdy through and through.

Echo time, all is well with her heart. Pressures are holding stable right now, we aren't looking any better, but we aren't worse off then we were. We may have gone up give or take a percent or two, but holding in moderately sever right now. We have yet to hit over the sever point which would be 80% and above. Lily bought herself another two months away from the cardiologist and I don't think she could have been happier when I told her.

Where do we head from here? Well back to the pediatrician of course. Lily is WAY behind on her shots. As standards go, you always have to wait 6 weeks after surgery for any of the normal childhood shots, so Lily hasn't had many. She is really going to hate me when we go in for her missed one year checkup. She is healthy so I don' want to bother her with the doctors anymore then necessary. So in other words. I have coddled her, pampered her, ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, spoiled her, but I can't help it. Rarely do we go anywhere during cold season, so there was reason to torment her with shots after all she went through during her first year of life. But you can't put of the inevitable for ever. So pedi time, shot time, grumpiness time...yeeee haww...who couldn't ask for more? Oh wait, I could, but that would be greedy of me. So I will be thankful for what we have, two months of freedom, two more months of knowing we don't have surgery in either of the months. But also, two months of knowing we are not walking away scott free. She will have her surgery sooner or later, later preferably, the bigger she is, the bigger artificial valves we can put it, and the longer they may last. Buying us more like 5 years, rather then 3 years or less. The more she grows, the more she causes the valves to leak, leakage, BAD.

I have faith in the doctors, that when the time is right everything will fall into place as it should. But mostly I have faith in God, that he will oversee the Doctors and Surgeons, and guide their hands and use their knowledge. I know we will never be able to stop heart defects from happening, they are formed while in the womb, but I have faith one day heart babies will not have to go through as much as we do now, and what has been gone through before we have reached this point. Technology only moves forward, and we are humbly reminded daily by it, as I was yesterday at the hospital. On that note, please keep baby Ethan in your prayers. He is in great need of them right now.

I will leave it at that. If you don't hear much from us, just know, no news is good news.

Love Hugs and Blessings
Jenna

Hebrews 11:1 faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen;it gives us assurance about things we cannot see

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Whispered I Love You's


As I fell asleep last night, my arms longed to hold something, someone. I closed my eyes and held my pillow, but I truly wanted my husband in bed with me. I ended up drifting off to sleep by myself, hugging my pillow tightly to my chest, being thankful for the man I have. Even though he was out in the living room, when I was falling asleep into dreamland.
When I awoke later in the night, I rolled over and my hand ran into his back, into the warmth of his slumbering body, I heard his exhale, his ever so quiet snores, and I felt peace. I ran my hand up to his hair, stroked it once or twice for comfort, reached over and kissed the closes part of him, which happened to be his shoulder. Out of habit, reflex, or just knowing it was me, he hummed approval in his sleep and whispered "I love you." No truer words have I heard from him, through all we have been through, he has loved me through it all. I am blessed with a forgiving husband, a humbled husband, and a loving one. He may not like my flaws, but excepts my imperfections with humility, and knows we both are imperfect, but he sees through it all and sees the beauty that lies within it all. He adores me, some days I wonder how, or why, but others I am humbled by just knowing. That at the end of the day, as I crawl into bed, he will shortly follow, wrap his arms around me until he falls asleep. Then roll over and whisper "I love you." all over again. We may have or differences, but we have learned that in the end, there is no reason to fight over things we can not change, to except and change those we can, and love each other through it all.

I love you Christopher, thank you for loving me with all my flaws, with my temper, with my unyielding stubbornness, you make me a better woman because of it.

Love Your Wife
~J~

Monday, August 10, 2009

I DID IT!!!!

!!!!!!!!~I CUT LILY'S HAIR~!!!!!!!and


She can see....it's adorable. I didn't touch the back of her hair, just the bangs. She was getting tired of me always pulling it up, and she would just pull it back down, then get mad at the hair that was in her face. SO.. I braved it, sharpened the scissors, pulled the hair back that I didn't want cut, wet the bangs, then cut....I was so scared....I had to steady my hand a few times....BUT...I did it. A good job I must say so myself! I finally got to the point where I knew it needed to be cut and I refused to go and spend $20 just to have her bangs cut. They aren't that hard to do, when they aren't yours that is.

I just had to share...I was so excited...so thrilled that I didn't mess up her hair. I can't wait for Chris to come home and see them...yes, I know, I should have waited for him, but I figured I should do it while I was brave enough for it, and not have someone standing behind me waiting for me to goof up. YAY...points for me being a brave Mommy....go figure, I am steady during a heart surgery....but when it comes to me cutting her hair....jeesshhhh.....

Oh...ps..Lily has a heart apt on the 19th. Wish us Luck! I am hoping for steady pressure on the valve. Please pray with us for that. The longer it stays steady, the longer we can put off another surgery. Fingers, toes, eyes, arms, legs.....is there anything else I can cross??? I will keep everyone updated!

Love Hugs and Blessings
Jenna

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Busy Busy Busy

I have tried to find some calmness and have yet to succeed. From unpacking, to helping the kids acclimate in their new environment, along with them having no friends in this area, to trying to find the nearest grocery store that is not Albertson's.....tears, frustration, and plenty of headaches have been achieved. I found that a Fry's is up the freeway, 2 exits away, and Walmart is 7 miles down the freeway, Chris's work is now 20 miles from us, Lucas's school is around the hill and over on 7Th Ave, because the school we thought he was going to was not right because we are on the wrong side of Carefree Highway. I got him registered, and he goes in for his testing on Friday at 8:30. He is excited, I am nervous. It makes me wonder how good of a stay at home mom I truly have been. I wonder if I have taught him enough, is he going to be behind? We will see!

I am loving our new place but I am homesick for my neighbors and friends. The only people around us are Chris's family, don't get me wrong, family isn't a bad thing, but when they are only my in laws and not my blood family, it makes it hard to lean on their shoulders. It is nice to wake up and hear Lily on the baby monitor, rather then in my room, peeking over her crib waving at me. The boys are having a blast with their bunk beds, Lily doesn't want to sleep, or she is going through a growth spurt, which I wouldn't doubt. All in all, things are nice around the household, just tons to do.

I need to make Lily a heart apt, we weren't able to make the sleep study, that day was crazy chaotic. I am glad I canceled it 2 days in advanced. If you don't, it is a $200 charge. Not something we can afford right now. Now Lily's GI apt, planned on making that, until the alarm didn't go off, and seeing we don't have a phone right now, I had no way of calling to reschedule. I am going to have to borrow my sister in law's phone to make Lily her heart apt. She has been really sweaty lately, and her lips have been a dusky color lately. The rest of her is fine, her perfusion seems to be good for right now. I think she is cold, but yet she is sweating and she is cold to the touch. Not sure what to make of it. So I am going with the, "Rather be safe then sorry." route right now.

Not much else is going on. I will keep everyone updated. I have a feeling her surgery is going to take place in October sometime....call it mommies premonition...it's like I can feel it in my bones. We will see if it comes true.

Please keep Lily in your prayers like always. But right now her problems dim in comparison of Ethan. He is very sick right now and needs ALL of our prayers. He is having such a hard go right now, we are all worried, and Heidi and Greg (Ethan's mommy and daddy) are very distraught. Please lets us come together in prayer for his special heart. I was truly hoping that I would come back online and he would be doing well, but he brought tears to my eyes instead. Heidi, Greg, our prayers are with you.

Love Hugs and Blessings
Jenna