Surgery Success

We are home and Morgan is doing GREAT! She was happy and calm the entire time. We can definitely count our blessings. There were some mishaps along the way. First, the hospital didn't call to confirm her surgery, to which I called and was told she was not scheduled. Forty-five minutes later they confirmed her for a later time. We meet with everyone prior to the surgery. The doctor went over what he thought might happen and said we would head home once she felt well post-op/recovery. The nurse gave her some "happy medicine" to chill her out. Then, as they were about to take her, the nurse realized the doctor didn't mark her ear. Twenty minutes or more later, plus lots of nurses grumbling and complaining that the doctor had to follow the procedures and policies, our doctor came back to mark her ear. The nurses weren't overly kind to the doctor. Neal let it be known that he wasn't happy with the nurses for making our doctor mad just before he was about to preform surgery on our one year old daughter.

The surgery was just about 2 hours long. Everything went well, but it ended up being more extensive than our doctor thought so Morgan and I had a spend the night at Wolfson's Hospital. Which then turned into an all Friday affair too, because the doctor didn't make it to us until after all of his surgeries today.

She really was happy and calm 95% of the time. She didn't really like it when the nurses or doctors wanted to check her ear. The stitches are all dissolvable, but could take up to a month to dissolve. She has to wear the headgear you'll see in pictures for a few weeks (especially since she favors lying on that ear). And then in a few years we'll have at least one more surgery.

She's sleeping soundly and snuggling with dad now. Thanks for keeping her in your prayers. You can definitely still pray for her because she has a few weeks of solid recovery time to make sure her ear heals well.

Weathering the storm by preparing

So Tropical Storm Fay has been hanging over Florida for 3 days now. For those family and friends not in Florida - don't worry we are all OK! I've lived in Florida my entire life and Jacksonville has been blessed to NEVER have a direct hit from a hurricane. Basically it's a really bad thunder storm that lasts for days and days and days. Except there usually isn't any lighting or thunder - just high winds and rain and rain and rain. The city has cancelled school and work since Wednesday. So what do you do when you shouldn't really go outside (although we have a little bit)...work on your food storage.

We are on a huge food storage kick right now. Tuesday night, right after they announced the city was closing down, I wanted to try to make jar bread for food storage. In order to make it, you must use Knox gelatin, not eggs, to allow for a longer shelf life. I headed for the store which was already a mad house. I thought people might not be out until the next day, but sure enough there was a million people there, no buggy's (shopping carts) to be found, and everyone loading up on water, non-perishable food, and batteries. Seriously is this the first hurricane season all of my neighbors have been through? Don't they know this can and usually does happen at least once during the hurricane season. So I go to get my Knox gel and got out as quickly as I can.

I make the banana jar bread. Next we make 7 quarts of cooked beef. And I've been working on getting my recipes fine tuned. My calling is 2nd counselor in Relief Society which puts me over food storage and our Bishop has asked each family to get 3 months supply of food by September 2nd. Neal and I have made that goal with Bishop's storehouse food BUT I came across a DVD from a Sis. DeWitt out of Arizona that put a whole new, easy, and dare I say, fun way to get prepared with a one year supply of food. Let me know if you want a copy - you can't download it anymore from the Internet.

I hope everyone else is having nice weather....at least let Florida inspire you to prepare and get your food storage started!

First Day of School

Today was Eli's first day of 1st Grade. Thankfully he still has a love for school - hopped right out of bed, showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, and was ready to head to school. He asked me if he could walk home from the bus stop by himself and I fibbed and said they don't let 1st graders walk home by themselves and we'll talk about it when he's 10. His picture makes me laugh! The shirt is too big, but he insisted on wearing it tucked in. I can't wait until the bus gets here in a few hours. Update: The bus was nearly 50 mins late. And Dylan couldn't wait for Eli to get home. "When is the bus coming? I want to play with Eli," he'd ask every 3 mins. And Eli's favorite part of the day......the playground. He got to upgrade from the Kindergarten playground to the regular playground. "It's big and fun. I tried to go across the monkey bars, but it was too hard."

AARRGGHH - We won!

The company we purchased the pirate murder mystery dinner from has a contest for party of the month. WE WON! Which means we get a free mystery dinner party. Neal's 30th birthday is in April so everyone start getting excited for another night of murder and mystery!

Check out the pictures on their website: http://www.nightofmystery.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

Surgery Date Set

Morgan is set to have her first of at least two ear surgeries on August 28th. For those who don't know she was born with a birth defect on her right ear. It was real scary when I first had her because I could only hear a little bit about what they were saying, but thankfully it was only a "cosmetic" defect, no hearing loss, kidney or heart problems. The surgery will last about 2-3 hours. Keep her in your prayers these next few weeks. It's always scary to put your tiny baby into the hospital, especially for major surgery.

Happy 1st Birthday Morgan!

I'll try not to get all emotional, but my baby turned 1 today. She woke up so happy this morning. That's not unusual, but generally she's ready to have a bottle. But she was just being pleasant and talking like she knew today was a special day. We went shopping for a little while - that's what girls want to do on their birthday! Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and cake. Tradition in my family is to let the baby play in the cake. It's really quite fun to watch. We placed the cake in front of her and she dug her fist right in. She just enjoyed every piece of her cake.

Happy Birthday Morgan. Grandma bought her a princess crown, but she wasn't interested in wearing the crown or this hat. Most of the pictures came out blurry.
Singing to Morgan.

Right away she put both hands into the cake and double fisted it. I can't blame her it was yummy cake!

Seriously, she was all about eating that cake.

The last picture taken before she was put into the sink for a bath. She did eat a lot of it, but she wasn't too messy. I only had to clean up the high chair and her. (I've had to clean blinds and walls in years past.)

Happy 6th Birthday Eli!

The pirate theme continues on. Eli had a pirate themed 6th birthday party Friday night. It's amazes me how much time flies as you get older!

As a note of interest....between my birthday (July 17th) and my dad's birthday (Aug. 4th) there are 15 birthdays between my family and Neal's family, that's 15 birthdays in 19 days. That's a lot of cake. Dylan and Eli in their pirate costumes (that dad made).

We played games like pass the coconut, walk the plank, pin the hook on the captain, and had a treasure hunt of course.

Eli enjoying his scurvy dogs and shark's blood drink.

Captain Eli helping decipher the treasure map. It ended with a pirate pinata to hit. It was crazy! Thankfully Neal was the one holding the pinata not me. We were inside and there was nothing to hang it on except Neal's arm. I don't think I'll do a pinata again. Thankfully no one was injured.

Dylan playing pin the hook on the captain. He wanted to play with the big kids, but was really emotional (OK he down right had a melt down) when he couldn't keep up with them.

We had a family party on Saturday night during Morgan's first birthday party. Thanks to everyone for all the fun toys!