Some Updates...

Well hello there! I sure haven't been blogging much lately :-) I update people a lot on Facebook and don't even think to blog very often, and when I do, I feel like I'm saying a bunch of things people already know! Anywho...enough of my nonsense rambling :-)
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Jacob's eye doctor appointment went well, very quickly actually. The doctor said that his eye is definitely turning in, and even turns in when wearing his glasses, but not as much so. So he's to wear his glasses for 2 months, then will be going back in for another appointment at which his eyes will be dilated and they'll do a more thorough exam. I don't know much more than that, to be continued... He's doing well wearing his glasses again, we're back to going in fairly regularly to get them adjusted over and over, argh...
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Juliana is doing SO well in dance class! She sure has come a long ways since she started back in September! It's been so fun watching her have fun in dance class, and even moreso, watching her dance at home!!! She closes her eyes and practically floats around the room! The funny thing is watching JACOB practice with her. If she isn't quite getting something right, then he goes "No no, I'll show you, it's like this..." and off he goes :-)
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I'm also happy to report that my weightloss is going well. Lost another 3.4 lbs last week, for a grand total of 17 lbs in the first 5 weeks. My goal is to hit my half-way point by my birthday (23 lbs to go to get there, in 4 months). I'm working very hard on this, I am SO motivated and SO excited!!! I've been working out every day, watching every little thing I put in my mouth, have been trying to be more active in general, and it's really paying off! I'm starting to notice the changes, both in my body in general, and also in how I feel, and I love that!!! I have so much more energy, feeling "tighter", and am finally getting back into some of my old clothes. Anywho, I'm getting there, still at least 63 lbs to go over all, but I'm getting there!!! YAY!
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Also, as for my bible reading, I'm definitely reading more often, but need to keep working towards making it a daily thing. I'm finally done with Mark and have started Luke. It's been really neat reading these books of the bible during the months between Christmas and Easter, it makes the "holidays" much more meaningful, brings them to life and helps me keep in mind the REAL "reason for the season".
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Let's see...anything else?!? Jenna finally learned how to roll over, at 9 months of age! She's also learned to wave Hi and Bye, and just started clapping this week :-) Big month of development for her!
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I hope this blog finds you well and that you have a great February! Who else has been enjoying this WONDERFUL WEATHER?!?!? We've walked to the park twice this week already and the kids have been playing outside a lot! LOVE IT!!!

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The Last of Many

Well today was a crazy day and I'm glad the bulk of it is over :-) We had Juliana's dance class this morning, raced home to get Jacob off the bus, do potties, redress Juliana non-ballerina style, ate lunch, fed Jenna, piled back in the car (with not a moment to spare), and went to Jacob's last eye appointment for a while! Went in for about a 5-minute appointment, hopped back in the car and headed home (with various baby naps and bottles mixed in here and there...boy am I glad she can hold her own bottle nowadays!). Kinda grates on you when you GO-GO-GO and drive 40 minutes each way for a measly little 5 minute appointment...BUT I'm of course glad we weren't in the doctor's office for a lengthy amount of time either!

The doctor is happy with Jacob's eyes, says he is seeing great without his glasses and they are aligning really well. We are to bring him back in for a follow-up appointment in 4 months. He says there's basically a 50/50 chance that his eye will go in (the brain trains itself to use the other eye more, and after surgery it can slowly start going back because the brain continues to use the other eye). If that's the case, he'll have to continue wearing the patch again, and quite possibly have to endure another surgery. Only time will tell. Please continue praying, we'd of course love to not have him go through all that again!

More to come, in FEBRUARY! No more appointments for a while, I'm soooo happy! :-D

Amazing Progress At Dance!

Jen and I were pleasantly SHOCKED to see Juliana actually participating in dance class yesterday! She followed the teacher's instructions almost the entire time, it was amazing! I couldn't have been more proud of her, and my oh my was it cute!

As for Jacob, he had his follow-up eye appointment yesterday. The eye doctor was very happy with the progress he'd made over the past two days since he saw him last. We don't have to take him to next week's appointment, instead we'll wait a month, YAY! He doesn't think Jacob needs his glasses so we're to not put them on him unless we see his eye starting to turn in again. We are to continue all prescriptions until all are gone.

While waiting for the bus this morning, there was a girl who is always very outgoing and talkative. She said "His eyes are red, where are his glasses???" I told her that he had eye surgery last week and hopefully he won't need to wear his glasses anymore. "So he doesn't have lazy eye anymore?" It's looking that way, but it takes a while to know for sure. "I have lazy eye, but it's not too bad, I lost my glasses." How do you lose your glasses??? "My mom won't buy me anymore, I've lost three now." (That poor mom! Glasses aren't cheap, Missy!) "His eyes look really good, he's handsome!" Well thank you! (Jacob walks up...) "You look very handsome!" "Yeah..." (says Jacob). "HE SAID SOMETHING!!!" (she was shocked!) Tee Hee! Yes, she has tried to talk to him MANY times and he always hides his head in my coat. Another girl walked up and asked why his eyes are red too. I hope his day goes well... The bummer is that mornings are the worst, so they'll probably be a bit better by the time he's heading HOME, but has to have them at their reddest while he's encountering all his classmates. I'm sure the teacher will have the perfect explanation for his classmates, I just don't want him to feel bad (which he's already shown, so I'm a bit protective of his feelings right now). Anywho, I'm antsy for him to come home so I can see how his day went...although I'm sure all I'll hear is "Good...I don't know...can I have chocolate milk?" :-) Maybe I'll have to email his teacher ;-D

So yesterday had two great parts to it, all the parts in between where pretty hell-ish :-) I had to pray and pray for God to buck-up my attitude. Was gone a majority of the day, dealt with two very frustrating poo-poo accidents on Juliana's part and a VERY fussy Jenna (who is getting Juliana's cold...who got it from Jacob), and just various little things here and there, it all just kept compounding... But Matt sent me out of the house to visit Melissa and her new baby at the hospital, so for that I was VERY thankful! (her baby is SO cute!)

Below are three links to videos from Juliana's dance class yesterday. I wish YouTube didn't knock down the clarity so much! (understandable, but still!) :-) Just so darn cute! Poor Emma, she got paired up with Juliana, who is SO far behind where Emma's at! Juliana's holding her back from being the Broadway star that she is!!! We're very grateful for her though, she is a HUGE help to Juliana, she's her "stronghold" :-) If you watch the videos, Juliana and Emma are the only two that wear all-pink ballerina clothes, Juliana's hair is in a bun, Emma's are in pony tails. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsB1eU5CQbs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBOKq5O7JI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTPr30YdwVg&feature=related

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I NEED TO CALM DOWN!!!

That about sums it up, Jacob shouting "I NEED TO CALM DOWN!!!" at Grandma & Grandpa's house tonight :-) We were trying to get him to eat his pizza but he was just FAR too excited to do so! Jacob & Juliana have been asking...no...PLEADING!...to go to Grandma & Grandpa's house for I don't know how long! So once we finally got there, they were ecstatic!

Yet another update on Jacob: HUGE PROGRESS!!! He had a rough night last night, and this morning he wasn't looking any better, we were discouraged for him. But throughout the latter half of today he has made HUGE headway on his recovery! What a tremendous answer to prayer! All of a sudden his eye is more open, it's much less orange, and I even see a small patch of white on his left eye! (a ton on his right eye, but that one hasn't been the problem) My goodness, we are SO happy for him! We may keep him from school on Monday, but at this rate I'd imagine he'll be going on Tuesday, YAY!

The rest of the family is doing great, tired from the past week and our house is a wreck, BUT so relieved and are happy to be on the road to recovery! (in ALL aspects!) Thanks again for all your prayers. This morning our church had a great sermon about God being in control and not losing perspective...great timing of course :-)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Look at that! So amazingly wonderful to see!

Juliana being a butterfly...silly girl!

A very happy Baby Jenna!

An even HAPPIER Baby Jenna! (and a crazy Daddy)

Never-Ending Updates

His eye looked slightly worse this morning so we were very thankful that the doctor was going to see him today. Poor guy, he constantly has water dripping down his face, his eyes are puffy, makes it hard to see, laying down makes it worse, it's just a real bummer of a situation (and is very hard for Mommy & Daddy to watch!).

The doctor used the "big machine" that Jacob was so in love with at his last appointment, so Jacob thought that was pretty cool. The doctor said that both his eyeballs are swollen, but obviously the left more than the right. He says it's not common but he's seen it before, thinks it's most likely due to the incisions in his eyes. There's chroma-someething in the sutures and his eyes are probably just having a reaction to them. He says it's nothing to worry about, his eyeballs themselves aren't being harmed, they're just very swollen (the eyes themselves are really puffy, especially where it's orange, it actually comes out and over his eyelid...yucky...). The constant dripping of tears: his eyes are so swollen that they're basically closing off access to the tear ducts, so there's nowhere else for the water to go but down his cheeks. We are to continue with the oral antibiotic, the new eye drops as well as the first prescribed eye drops. He'd like to see him on Monday or Tuesday so he can keep a close watch on him, but thinks that everything will be fine. WHEW! What a relief...

In the meantime, we are to continue with all the prescriptions, don't make him wear his glasses, keeping him upright is helpful, no need to prohibit him from TV or computer - let him do whatever he feels like he can. We'll be keeping him from church tomorrow, it's hard enough for US to look at, I'd imagine it would be all the harder for 5 & 6 year olds! So we need to find a nursery volunteer to fill in for one of us. And if it's not much better by Monday, we're just going to keep him home from school until it clears up a bit. It'd be too hard for him, and hard for his classmates.

So there ya have it, yet another update, more to come... Oh yeah, and the doctor let him help feed the fish! (it's this mega cool fishtank that has all the Nemo characters in it, so that was VERY fun for Jacob!)

A Rough Patch

Jacob's eyes took a turn for the worse today. His eyes were looking worse, watering a lot, the color on the outer part of his left eye was turning more pink, and his left eye was only open about half as much as his right eye. I made him take a nap to rest his eyes, and when he woke up they looked awful. He watched a little TV, water was just running down his face, the outer part that had been pink turned into a more yellow/orange/pink color. He began saying that he was seeing blurry, got frantic and started crying. :-( We had him lay down and put a cold washcloth on his eyes for about 20 minutes while I called his eye doctor again. He was unhappy that the technician I spoke with earlier today didn't have me take Jacob in, and asked for her name... He has prescribed him new eye drops in addition to oral antibiotics. We're thrilled to now be attacking it from the outside AND inside. He's also having us bring Jacob in tomorrow so he can check him out (which we're very thankful for, as they're closed on the weekends). The pharmacist said that the new eye drops are a "big bullet", they attack all kinds of bacteria (which we have to give him every 2 hours while he's awake). And that the oral medicine is very powerful too. Great to hear! So we've started the new medicine and are awaiting his eye appointment tomorrow. More to come...

Jacob's eyes the day after surgery,

which was supposed to be the worst day.

Jacob's eyes today as I called the doctor...poor guy :-(

It's supposed to be going uphill by now.

Life As Usual

Well it's been a fun week having Jacob home, Juliana has thoroughly enjoyed having her playmate back in the mornings! On Wednesday we made windsocks, Jacob made a beach scene and Juliana drew circles and put a plethora of stickers on hers (Mommy also made a beach scene, however no pictures will be posted as I don't want to BOAST about how marvelous mine is!). And today we took a trip to Goodwill to parooze the Halloween costume selection. We purchased a few dresses to add to Juliana's dress-up bin, great finds at great prices! She LOVES the feathery sequin hat, as you'll soon see...
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As for an update on our patient, Jacob is doing well. The night of his surgery he had a bit of a rough time for a bit. He went the bathroom and was in there a long time. We checked on him and he had been standing there just staring at his eyes :-( We got him out of there, he sat on Matt's lap and cried. We explained to him that it's like the bruises on his legs and it will go away. His eyes have been super watery yesterday and today, I think he has a bit of a cold which is adding to that problem. His left eye is swollen and even the white is quite pink in that eye. I called the eye doctor to make sure I shouldn't be doing anything, they said the prescription eye drops should take care of it, to keep watching it, etc. His post-op appointment will be on Tuesday, October 7th. More to come...in the meantime, pictures from this week!
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A Sea Of Appointments

I find myself enveloped in a sea of appointments, and oh Lordy am I ready to be done for a while! :o) We'll go in order of how yesterday unfolded. Let's begin, shall we?

Juliana: We had her post-op toe appointment yesterday morning directly after getting Jacob on the school bus. The doctor was very happy with one of her feet. The other foot had some enflamed toes that we just need to be good about keeping clean (which will be much easier now that she can take showers again!). And one toe didn't straighten out all the way. There are three tendons in each toe, the doctor generally has to cut only one tendon to fix the problem. However the problem with having to do the procedure on a person who is out is that he can't ask the patient to curl their toes, push against his hand, stand up, etc. So she needs one more tendon clipped. He said that if she's not complaining about it hurting, to go ahead and just wait it out for a few years when he can do the procedure when she's awake. In general though, they are looking so much better, and the one foot is just amazing!

Jacob: We had Jacob's next eye appointment yesterday afternoon (thank you, Mom, for watching our girls, I am SO grateful that I didn't have to entertain them for that super long appointment!). After wearing his eye patch for two hours of every day for the last two months, the Opthamologist has given the go-ahead to give him strabismus surgery. He is scheduled to be at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma on Tuesday, September 23rd at 7:00am. They say he should be up and around by about Thursday and will have flaming red eyes for a couple weeks. It's still unknown at this point if he will need to continue wearing glasses after the surgery.

I must admit, it's hard putting your child's SIGHT into someone else's hands! It's one thing for him to need to wear glasses, I'm fine with that (it'll be a bummer for him later, as all glasses-wearers know, it gets old fast), but having someone actually cut into my child's eyes is a bit harder for me to be at peace with. I realize it's a common surgery, Jacob's grandma had it done as well. Obviously that was a long time ago and medical procedures have come a long ways since then. It's just that "chance". Matt and I have been having enough of a hard time watching him struggle with his sight in general. Lately he's been saying things like - "Look Mom, there's two screens, one right there and another right there." (with his glasses on) And oh how that breaks my heart... He's such a bright young boy, we are amazed at the things he can do in the academic world, and are anxious to see where that takes him! But you can see how this type of problem could make schooling difficult, and you never know, he could change modes if he just gives up. So of course we want to get the procedure done. (and he would lose sight in general if we never got the procedure done) It's just difficult allowing someone to take a scalpel to your child's eyes! I want him to be able to experience life to the fullest, to see his future bride coming down the aisle, to see his children being born and the look on his wife's face in that instant, and in the meantime I want to watch him be enthralled with Mickey Mouse, or to examine those shiny green-backed bugs I mentioned recently, to be excited every time he sees a letter ANYWHERE, putting them together to make words we didn't even know he was capable of spelling out! Anywho, I know, sounds like I'm making a bigger deal than need be, I'm just being "real" and letting you all know what I could use prayer on, peace in this situation. We are anxious to get this surgery over with, and are SO happy that they were able to schedule it so quickly, AND that it's at such a great hospital!

I also ended the night on a great note! We went to the first Girlfriends Unlimited night of the 08/09 year at Faith Baptist. I was feeling so ready to start another year of that - some wonderful time with girlfriends - getting your giggle back! And that's just what we did! Then the Pumpkin Patch Crew went out to Applebee's afterwards and talked over appetizers until midnight - SO WONDERFUL! I am extremely thankful for our friendship, it is SO refreshing. I am excited to see where time takes us, what we will accomplish together, what crazy thing we'll talk about next, what we'll learn about each other next... ;-D Thank you, Girls!!!




Jacob waiting for what felt like FOREVER in the eye doctor's office.


Jacob and his most favorite "machine" in the whole world!