Krysten's turning Goth

...or she was playing in tar,

...or maybe it was just black nail polish.

Fruits of My Labor

I know half the people in the world have already figured out how to use Movie Maker but I've been a little behind the learning curve on this one.

I attended a workshop today where I learned digital storytelling using Movie Maker and geocaching. I am so excited to make all kinds of projects using our pictures. Woo hoo!

This is my project for the day.

Enjoy.

Digital Scrapbooking

I found this site on someone else's blog. I thought it was pretty cool. Even though I have done a lot of scrapbooking, I've never done digital scrapbooking.

Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com

Montessori and more

I know I've left ya'll hangin' with whatever happened with our babysitter issues last month.

We've got a new babysitter and she's working out great so far. Kylee had a meltdown last week and the babysitter still answered the door the next morning when we brought the girls. We took that as a good sign.

Kylee has also started at the Montessori School. I've had mixed feelings about the school, or rather, the type of school. Mainly because I've been completely indoctrinated by public school. Public school pays our bills remember. Anyway, I was just nervous about something I didn't really know about.

What's important is how Kylee is doing at Montessori.

She's doing absolutely wonderful. She loves her new school. Her learning is taking off and she's exploring and learning so much. It's been great to hear about all she's learned when she gets home from school.

Houston, Days 2, 3, 4, and 5.

I didn't do much blogging the rest of our trip since I didn't have immediate computer access. So I thought I'd share some images of where we spent the majority of our time in Houston.

Here is Texas Children's Hospital. I can hardly begin to describe this place. Houston Medical Complex is incredible. There's like 10 hospitals all together. So close you don't really know when you've left one hospital and are in another.

I got lost EVERY time I left Tracey's room. All the elevators are color-coded. Just to get from her room to the car I had to get on the PeptoBismol pink elevators, ride them to the gray elevators, get on the gray express elevators, walk to another building, and then find the purple elevators to the correct level of the parking garage. Sheesh. I considered it a major accomplishment when I was finally able to do that without getting lost. Through that white door was where the surgery took place. The doctors and nurses were WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!! Many hours in recovery there. Here is where I texted many of you with updates because I had nothing to do but watch Tracey sleep. The sunrise the next morning from Tracey's room. It was much prettier than my cell phone captured. This is the moment that I finally learned which way was north in this crazy metropolis. (Most days we couldn't see the sun.)

My updates became less frequent as Tracey was more and more alert.

We stayed an extra day to allow Tracey more recovery time. We flew home Thursday afternoon and managed to avoid many of the flight delays that were happening throughout the country that day.

Tracey is home and recovering well. We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers from so many of you. Thanks for caring.

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We will do this all over again March 31.

Houston, Day 1

I know you are here looking for news on Tracey.

That's not gonna happen. Not this time anyway. Sorry :(

Instead, I wanted to share with you some pictures from our trip thus far. Remember, we're just a couple of small town girls in the big, big, big, BIG city. We're a little bit redneck.

An ipod vending machine. Just in case you forgot yours.Our rental car. It's so cute, it's a Toyota Yaris. I swear, it's got the wheel-base of a 4-wheeler. I feel like I have to learn to drive all over again.
Our hotel is right next to the Reliant Center. I can see it from my balcony window.

Enjoy your day folks. I know we are gonna enjoy ours.

Tracey's Surgery

So tomorrow Tracey and I leave for Houston. She will be having the first in a series of three surgeries on her arm.

Pre-consultation is on Monday and the procedure will be on Tuesday morning. I will be allowed to stay in the hospital (Texas Children's Hospital) with her Tuesday night. She will be released on Wednesday and then we fly home later that day.

That's the trip in a nutshell, but I'm sure you guys are wanting more details.

Last year Tracey was diagnosed with having a venous malformation in her left arm. The vein walls expand when blood flows through and pools causing painful lumps in her arm. It has not restricted her activities in any way and only bothers her most when it's cold.

But it's not going away and needs to be fixed through a procedure called sclerotherapy.


So please pray that our trip goes well and that the procedure goes smoothly.

If you want, you can send notes or gifts to patients through the hospital. I am sure Tracey would really appreciate having some notes or gifts from friends and family.

Seeing Spots

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged...so I thought I'd better post something.

So you, my lucky followers get to learn about my mysterious disease.

I had been pretty happy about the fact that I had made it this far thru the winter without getting sick. Everyone else in my family has been sick, tons of people at school are sick; but I had somehow escaped all those dreaded germs.

Until Saturday. I started feeling a little yucky.

Sunday. Yuckier still. I stayed home from church and laid in bed the whole day.

Monday. Despite earlier hopes of making it to work...it wasn't happening. At some point that day I found a flashlight (you scoff, yet you don't live in a house fully of pesky preschoolers and preteens) and peered inside my throat. Sure 'nuff, there were those tell-tale white spots in my throat.
So after dragging to myself to the doctor and listening to some old man get his toenails clipped in the next exam room I got my diagnosis.

Strep-negative.

So what is it?

Doctor doesn't know. Could be this, could be that. We'll send you home with a handfull of prescriptions and come back if things get worse.

Great. Fabulous. A mystery disease.

They referred me to an ENT doctor. But the first appointment they had was in 2 weeks. That'll do me a lot of good. The spots will either be gone, or I'll be dead. Either way it won't matter.

Tuesday- Feeling mildly better. Throat doesn't feel like it has rocks in it.

Wednesday- going to attempt going back to work. We'll see how that goes.