Eye Surgery

Dr Demer, Noah's wonderful eye doctor told me at his last appt before John returned home that he thought that Noah would benefit from a major reconstruction of his upper and lower eyes muscles.  He told me that it could wait until John got home, so thats what we did. We found out on Sept 1 2010, that Noah would go in for surgery on Sept 8, 2010. At the Jules Stein Eye Institute, at 9am.

Noah pre-op....
He was a trooper like everything else that he has had to endure. He was happy, even though he was tired and I am sure hungry (he couldn't eat anything after midnight the night before)

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Noah's Anesthesiologist. He was also his anesthesiologist on his first MRI

Them taking him into surgery. The surgery was suppose to start at 9, but didn't start until 11. John and I went and got lunch and the we start the LONG wait.

I think it was the LONGEST wait in history. I am sure that every parent feels that way about their kid in surgery. Although Dr Demer did say confidently, that they would be out in less than 1.5 hrs. When the surgery ended up taking almost 2.5. The extra time made it hard to breathe!! When he came out of surgery he understandably was not the same happy camper that he normally is. He was tired, hungry, and in pain. We spent the next few hrs in recovery. They wanted to make sure that he was ok, he won't really wake up long enough for them to figure out if he was recovering well. Finally they decided to release him, although he had not drank anything, or would wake up for more than a few minutes, and those minutes were spent screaming his head off. Around 4 they released us to go home with strict instructions to watch him, and if he acted weird AT ALL to take him to the nearest ER. He slept the whole way home and most of the rest of the day and night. Waking up every so often for 15-20, watch some TV. Then fall back asleep. John and I slept on the couches and Noah slept on the floor the whole night

Noah was back to his happy self the day after the surgery. He was even trying to walk!!! Here is a picture of his eyes Day 1

Day 2

John's plan was to take a picture every day until they were no longer red. That didn't happen. But about a week or so after the surgery the redness had went almost completely away. We saw Dr Demer saw Noah on Sept 28 and said that the surgery was more successful than he could of hoped for. YAY!!!

He is already doing better and looking straighter. He seems a little more stable on his feet and seems to have an easier time seeing. I am so happy that he was able to get this surgery, and that all went well.

Bike RIde

 So we try to get out regularly with the boys and their bikes. It is great practice for both of them. This ride we decided to take the boys alittle bit further than normal. This ended up being a bad IDEA!! Both boys were at their limit before we even got half way home. Which lead to frustrated kids and parents. There almost was an a need to call CPS!! Just Kidding. Although I felt like I was getting close to that point!

Before all happy and ready to go

Ready to head out

 Noah looking so cute

 Isaac is getting pretty good, and can ride pretty fast. Yes John is running to keep up with him...

So Isaac ALMOST fell. John caught the bike before it feel, but Isaac kinda ended up on his knees. This made him not want to get back on the bike. He was afraid of hurting his head. SO John had him repeatedly beat his head on the brick all, so that way he would understand that he was not going to get hurt :-)

So before we got half way home Isaac was TIRED!! His head was sweaty, and he was tired! So John got on Isaac's bike to show him how easy it was to ride. It was SO funny.

                                                            Then Isaac said "Let me push you!"

Eventually we made it home, everyone in one piece, but it was touch and go there for a second!!

Celebrating with Dad

 Since John was gone for the boys' birthdays this last summer, when he got home we had a small family party. Since neither of the boys really like cake, or frosting, I just bought 4 cupcakes. And added sprinkles.

We decided that we would buy Isaac a 2 wheeled bike with training wheels. And as we were shopping for that we saw the perfect training bike for Noah. Since he was a hard time with muscle memory activities, we figured a bike that we can push, as he pedals would be a great way to help him learn. John also found Isaac this really cool leather jacket, and we bought Noah some tower building blocks, and some barn yard animal figures. They loved it!!

After opening presents we decided to head out for a ride. Isaac did a great job. And Noah did a good job and keeping his feet on the pedals. It will take some time for him to learn, but we have gone out a few times already and he is getting better and better

Oregon Visit 2010

 Before we headed up to Washington for my parents 30th Wedding anv we stopped by John's families house. I love visiting with them with or without John. We had lots of fun and hit lots of parks....It was was nice to have extra hands to play with the kids, and someone to take some pictures of us

Grammie and Papa have birds and ever since Isaac met them he has LOVED them!! He always asks to hold them and play with the. This time he did really good. In the past he had not liked it to be on him. But this time the bird and him watch TV for a while together :)

One of the days we were there it was a beautiful day, and my inlaws live out in the middle of nowhere, so I wanted to take Isaac on a hike. I asked Matt, John's nephew, and his girlfriend if they wanted to go with us. Isaac had so much with Matt. They found a lizzard, and Isaac even held it! WOW!! and EEWWW!!

Noah loves his Aunt Katie, and had so much fun with her. This at a different park that we went to, that was for one of grandkids. It had an old McDonalds play toy in it!! It was really cool, very hot inside, but awesome! The kids had a water ballon/squirt gun fight, they had alot of fun!

 

Paint Problems

 So one of my goals when John was gone, was to get all the decorating done in the house. John really hates painting, so I figured lets make sure that gets done. The master bath was painted a pretty lilac color. I left the paint can on the table, thinking it was safe until I was able to get back to finishing the bathroom. I went up to get the kids' church clothes and well Isaac is so so curious....so he climbed on the table, and put it on the floor. Then found the paint key and OPENED the paint!! He then came up stairs, and left the paint. Noah crawled into the dinning room and from what I can figure out, probably used the paint can as something to push on to stand up. When I came downstairs to get Noah dressed, I picked him up without looking at him. And thought to myself. "Why do I smell paint?"
I held Noah out to find that he had paint ALL over him. Then I looked down to see the trail of paint that was on the floor leading back to the split paint can!! I had about 3/4 a can of paint on the floor. I proceeded to SCOOP up the paint. To try to save my carpet. Didn't happen :( I also tried to carpet clean it. This just spread the mess around. It was a disaster!! Needless to say that we never made it to church that day! LOL

Walls

In the Living Room I will be putting our recent family pictures under it. Under family, if you can't read it, it says "One of lifes greatest blessings"

In the dinning Room, our kitchen kinda has a Italian chef theme

Daddy Wall...This wall is right outside the boys' rooms. They are all pictures things that the boys have done with dad, so that when he is gone for long periods of time, they can go look at it, and remember all the fun they had with Daddy.

Powder Room

Our downstairs bathroom was the hardest room in our house for me to pick paint for. Well not really, just the hardest for me to actually commit to doing it. I knew that I wanted it a red color, and I wanted it textured. That being said one of the many things that I wanted to do before John got home was finish all the paint, and decorating. So I set out just weeks before his return to get it all done. The color is the same color as the living room couches, and the accent color in the kitchen/dinning room. The texture was a complete accident. But it turned out perfect I LOVE IT!! I first painted the walls only natural, from Behr than I painted the walls with half Red Red Wine and half water. For the first coat, than I painted the walls in a diagonal direction with full red red wine. And the end result was awesome!! Then I decided that I wanted to go with a black and white accents. I went to the store, and bought the first thing I liked. I LOVED it even more. I couldn't find a towel rack that I felt went with the bathroom, so I jimmy rigged my own. I used to sconces that I found that I liked and a wooden dowel that I painted black. I couldn't find any shelves that I  felt matched so that I could get the soap and lotion off the small pedestal sink, so I also used sconces that went with the scrolly design. This looks great and matches perfect. But I didn't think of the kids when I design the bathroom. The towel rack rolls off every time Isaac uses the towels. And the soap dispenser is already broken because it falls off when he washed his hands. Well at least we know he is washing them right?!?

Tracy Family Reunion

When my Aunt Ana was a teenager she gave a baby up for adoption. The baby that she gave to a loving family oh so many years ago, found my Aunt Ana just a few years about, right before she died. Most of the family had met her, but my dad's kids that live here in Cali had not, so my Uncle Pat arrange a family reunion. It was wonderful. I got to see my Uncle Jack who I am sure I have not seen since John & I got married 7 yrs ago, my uncle Pat's daughter, who I have not seen since I was a teenager, her husband, and kids which I had never met and few more distant Aunts & Uncles that I have never met either, and of course Regina. She has lived an amazing life. The family that adopted her moved back to Holland shortly after he adoption was final. She was in the nursing field, spoke a slew of languages, had an amazing sense of humor, and an uncanny ability make fun of my Uncle Pat, who has kinda took her under his wing, helping her stay in contact with the family after my Aunt Ana died a few years ago.

The Party was in Victorville, CA. Which is in the high dessert, and BLUSTERING hot. Thankfully my uncle has a swimming pool, and the kids were able to hang out most of the day in it. Isaac amazing connected with my Uncle, and jumped right in the pool. The water was warm, but not bath tub water, this was not to Isaac's liking, so he screamed. My uncle looked him in the face, and said "if you do that again you will not be able to swim!!" Isaac never once screamed again. He breathed funny, and shivered alot, but no screaming. I was amazed, and Isaac and Uncle Pat created a close bond that day. Later after Isaac had begged and begged to watch TV, Uncle Pat lead him down the hall and let him watch TV in his bed, under the covers. According to his wife, Darla, He never lets the kids go back there.

Noah was not up for the water, and that was ok with me, cause that meant I didn't have to get in. WHEW!! But as you can see in the pictures he loved watching all the other kids hang out in it. He did take a dive of the walkway in his walker, pretty much ending my break, because the kid sat in my lap the rest of the day. Finally my brother Aaron took him after dinner. My arms were so tired, and my back was KILLING me. Noah snuggled up to my wonderful teddy bear of a brother and fell asleep on him. I slept the rest of the time that we were there. Thus being a perfect angel!!

Dierks Bentley

On military appreciation day Dierks Bentley came to play at the Ventura County Fair. So I got a sitter and headed out to meet some friends there. Because of some miscommunication, time conflicts, massive crowds and a few other things we were not able to meet up with our friends that had waited all day to get good seats. Erin and I were not really even sure where the concert was suppose to be, besides the fair. So we kept walking, then I over heard some guy on his cell phone saying ya I know how to get there, I am going the back way, I went to some other concert there. So we decided to follow him. Doing this was the best idea EVER!!! We ended up on the left of him, pretty close. We were happy to be there, considering we didn't wait at all.  We could see him very well, and we were content. Then all the sudden there was pushing, and shoving, the people in the front were moving and the people in the back wanted us to go too. So we followed the crowd!!! This was and even better thing. We ended up 4 rows back just to the left of him. All the pictures above were taken WITHOUT zoom!! It was an amazing nite, we caught some guitar picks, got to meet some the band and crew afterward, we hung around waiting for the crowd to clear, getting more guitar picks for our friends that sadly waited all day, to get OK seat!!! Over all it was great!! He is a wonderful show men. His songs were great. And he sent a wonderful tribute out to the all the military men and women and their families.

Trip to Washington

Click here to view these pictures larger

So when John was deployed we made a trip to visit both sides of the family. I brought my camera, but never once took it out of the car to take any pictures. So my sister, Sheila, graciously posted these pictures to our family website, and ShutterFly as amazing as they are allowed me to post this video. And it was so easy. I clicked the pictures I wanted to include, clicked post to blog and click, it was done!! So watch the video, it has pictures for our entire two week visit. Some of the things that we did were:

 Isaac went horseback riding for the first time. He LOVED it!! Although some of the pictures he looks terrified, he still to this day askes if we can go to the red barn, my sister's house has a HUGE red barn, to ride the horses.

 My parents celebrated 30 yrs of married. My hats of to them. After 30+ years together they are still so in love!! Holding hands, opening doors, and still striving to make each other happy in every way!! I hope I am half as happy as they are when we have been married 30 years.

My sister, Karen, who lives here in California too, was also in attendance to the celebration. Her boys, and my brother, Spencer helped Sheila bale all their hay. So some of the pictures show the boys hard at work.

The first week, was time spent with my mom, and my sisters. It was a wonderful time. I wish that I was able to live closer. I miss them so much. And the relationship, friendship, fun and laughs that we had. Sheila & I went and saw the New Twlight movie at the midnight showing. Something I had never done before it was so much fun. The good times didn't stop at the movie. As we waited for hours to leave the parking structures the good times continued to roll. Many late nights spend playing Mario Bros on the WII with my mom!! I love the laughs that we had, and I miss that so much. The late nights spent with Sheila and her boys. The wonderful bonding time that I spent with Spencer, getting to know him again. He is going up so fast!! And the time that I got to spend with SarahAnn, her husband Michael, and their ADORABLE little girl Kaylene. The second week weezed by as that time was mostly spent preparing for the party. But wonderful times sitting aroung arranging flowers, picking out songs and shopping with my family. I miss them so much can you tell :). Also as I was there my sister and mom watched the boys allowing me to get some much needed time away...John decided I needed a spa day!! WOW was it AMAZING!! 5 hours of pampering me, from head to toe!! AAAHHH!! I wish I was rich, I would do that all the time. I think that I would make a good rich person. Just in case you were wondering...

Isaac Turned 4

So I have a hard time with holidays and celebrations when John is gone I am sure that most everyone does. I debated not doing anything for Isaac's 4th Birthday since John would be home in a few months. But someone, I don't remember who now, told me it was important to have a celebration for him anyway... So I did, a totally last minute thing, we had some people over for cake and it was crazy, but fun. Thanks to the those that were there.


Isaac choose Deigo as his theme

I let him pick out the cake...

As I have been told...

I have become awful at blogging. I am sure that it has nothing to do with my CRAZY schedule of more that 12 hrs a week for Isaac and 5 hrs a week for Noah. But thats just life right?!?! Isn't that what everyone has? I am sure that it has nothing to do with the fact that my hubby recently returned safely to us :)!! Thank goodness. I have about 8+ post waiting in the blogger thing to be published. It has been so long I have not idea, in what order to post them....so in no particular order our lives over the last few months are to come...