Whew!

Glad that's over! Melanie was a champ through the whole ordeal. Much less anxiety than she could have had. The team of doctors and nurses were impressed with her bravery. The appointment was at 3:15, but we didn't go in until after 4:00 because they had computer problems earlier in the day that pushed everything back. The testing wasn't over until around 5:15 and it felt like the doctors were ready to go home afterwards so we didn't get a ton of feedback other than so far so good and everything looked ok. I think this cuts down on the possiblity of surgery considerably. She was prescribed with some medication that will hopefully resolve some issues. Thanks for all the positive vibes!

Thoughts for Tomorrow

Monday is the day that we travel to Boston for some more testing for Melanie. This testing will be fairly invasive and not pleasant for her. It should give us some sort of answers to the inconclusive diagnoses and the issues she has been having, so please send us some well wishes and prayers.

Roger Williams

Today was the last day of school vacation week and we found ourselves with friends at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence. It was a gorgeous sunny day (has been warm and sunny all week!) and the zoo was crowded. But everyone had fun and it was a great way to end the busy week. This pic was taken with my camera phone. We all forgot to bring a real camera.

Tonight as I was tucking Kylie into bed she told me she hoped she had good dreams. She said (forgive me that it's not word for word, but I can't remember every detail!), "This is what I want my dream to be. . .me and Melanie are teenagers and we both have blonde hair with twisties in it, she's wearing a light purple dress with light purple underwear with curlies around the edges, light purple shoes and a silver and diamond necklace with light purple circle earrings with diamonds in the middle and a light purple bracelets with lots of little diamonds and I am wearing a light pink dress with light pink shoes and light pink underwear with curlies around the edges, with a silver and diamond necklace and light pink circle earrings with diamonds and light pink bracelet with diamonds. Neither of us are wearing bras and we are both riding white horses."

Now that's a detailed dream full of diamonds! My kind of girl!

The Secret Garden

My favorite book as a kid was the Secret Garden. So, as I am out working in the yard, raking the billionth leaf, I think of Mary, Dickon and Colin working tirelessly in their little hidden garden as they uncover little sprouts of new plants coming up. As I pull the 5 inches of leaves away and see green beneath, it gives a sense of warmth and satisfaction that I am removing the winter blanket so the new plants can grow.

But then the reality sets in that I have soooooo much more work to do. And I don't have Dickon and Colin working next to me or the little bluebird to talk to. . .

A few weeks ago, as Tom and I were working together in our front flower bed (which is absolutely beautiful in the summer), he said, "Doesn't condo life look pretty good right about now?"

Even our neighbors comment as they walk by. . ."you have so much work to do," and "you've really got your hands full with that yard."

This is a photo of our leaf pile after I pulled all the winter leaves out of the gardens (the leaves that hang on the trees until long after fall is over). The photo doesn't do it justice because besides the length here, it's about 5 feet wide.



And here is how my girls and their friends kept themselves occupied while I worked. It's a very elaborate fairy house:



And here are the fairy house creators:



Kylie took the photo at the top of the pink flowers. She was SO excited that our first flowers that appeared in the yard were PINK that I just had to give her the honors of photographing them. She must be a pro because she yelled at me and said, "MOMMY your shadow is covering the flowers!"

Happy 90th Grandma Mustard!

April is a month for birthdays in our families and this April I just totally flaked on remembering any of them. I even have a calendar with everyone's birthdays on it, but in order for that to be effective, you actually have to read it at the beginning of the month. I did remember my best friend, Kim's 35th birthday which was on Wednesday. Happy birthday Kim! Sorry you had to work all day!

Today is my grandmother's 90th birthday. My parents are taking her out to dinner tonight in Kansas City. It's been a rough year for her. She herself has been healthy, but she had to see the passing of my other grandmother in September (they were friends), help my dad through my mom's surgery and then see my dad (her son) go through his own surgery and learn of the cancer diagnosis. She's spent a lot of time in hospitals over the last few months, but not as a patient, so that's a good thing! I think it was very stressful for her, but things seem to be looking up. My dad has some side effects from the chemo, but for the most part feels pretty good (considering).

This was a photo taken on a trip to Kansas in 2006.

Sign that your 5 year old watches too much TV

When she says, "Mommy what are we doing Saturday at 8, 7 central?"

Poem for Grampy

Happy Birthday Grampy! See words to poem below!

Poem for Grampy

Written by Melanie
(with a little help from Mommy)

You are so much fun
You are my number one.

You like to take me to the RV
It's better than watching TV.

When things in our house go bust
You come and fix them for us.

One day when we were playing Tinker Toys
I swallowed my tooth. Oh Boy!

You were so nice
You gave me ice.

So, happy birthday Grampy
You make me so happy!

Recital Preview

Well, how did I do????

Sick Days

I've had a bit of time off for the last few days. . .

Thursday Kylie missed school with a mysterious illness that turned into a stomach bug. So I missed my full day of work that day and she was still sick on Friday so another day at home. . .

Saturday was an ok day for health. . .Melanie made it to drama and Kylie to her first day of soccer.

But then Sunday morning Melanie woke up with a horrible cold. . .sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever. . .you name it. I was supposed to teach Sunday School but had to back out of that.

Last night she was still pretty bad, but I was optimistic that after a good night's sleep she would be ready for school this morning.

Not so much. . .

She woke up with her eyes swollen, puffy and crusty, runny nose, cough and chills. It would have been child abuse to send her to school, so I called into work AGAIN. Now, I only have been working Mondays and Thursdays, so it's tough to miss two days in a row.

What have I been doing while I have been stuck at home? I spent four hours raking yesterday (still a ton left to do). I've done laundry and cleaned. (Why is the the house is still a mess?) What I've most enjoyed is reading and playing games with the girls. Since Kylie was at school this morning, Melanie and I got to play some of the "grown up" games that we can't play very easily with Kylie around, which included Battleship (I won) and Scrabble (she won. . .but she got all the good letters AND had my help).

Now they are playing together. . .building a Pet Shop Dream House. They could be at that for hours. They are so cute when they get into their pretend play.

This afternoon, Kylie has picture day for her dance class recital. We have to do the hair (in a bun adorned with flowers), makeup and costume (I have to like sew it or something). We'll see how that turns out. I'd better start on it now. Yikes! I only have 2 hours! I'll do photos of that too.

Allen Field House

The last time I was able to make it to Allen Field House for a Jayhawks game was in December of 2003 when we were home for Christmas right after my nephew, Alex was born. I remember I had to call the opponent's ticket office and pretend I was a fan in order to even get tickets. We sat with the visiting team's fan section. Fortunately there weren't many of them there! Here are some pics from that trip.

Unbelievable!!

That had to be one of the best college games ever!

Lawrence must be going crazy!

KU Alma Mater and Rock Chalk Chant

Check this one out too. . .Who is better, my girls or the fans/cheerleaders???

Less than an hour to go. . .

Go Jayhawks!

I'm a Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay, Jayhawk

Our KU flag fell off the house this week in the wind. We took that as a bad omen, but apparently what happens here has little effect on the team because they beat Roy Williams on Saturday. Oops, I mean they beat North Carolina.

Tonight is the National Championship game! So if the flag can't stay on the house, I found a new home for it on our real Jayhawk. (If any of you ever wondered where he got his name, it's not just because I went to KU, it's because of this - THE FINAL FOUR).

I'm watching the game alone tonight. Tom is at a conference all week, so he left me a sweet note, a pic of himself and his KU hat on his pillow. Ohhhh, how sweet. Only question. . .why isn't he wearing his hat???? He'd better have his good luck Kansas shirt with him (he pulled it out of the dryer - still wet last week when Kansas was struggling against Davidson - it worked!)

The girls both wore their KU shirts to school today. I'll have to take a pic of that later when Melanie gets home. Kylie even put my old Jayhawk hair ribbon in her hair. Cute, cute, cute.

Sorry, Amy, but I really hope you don't win that $150!