We're HOME!!!(some pictures might be graphic!)

And I have put my new toy to good use.
Camryn was admitted to the hospital on Friday for surgery and it was short notice. She went in for a CT on Thursday at 2, an appointment at 4 and by 5 she was scheduled for surgery. It was quite the worldwin, so here are some pictures, chronologically :)
Camryn waiting for her CT.

Camryn goofing around waiting for Dr. Partington

The look on Camryn's face when she found out she'd have to go to surgery the next day.

Camryn getting a weight check and pre-op physcial.

Camryn is always happier when she can be in control. A doctor in the making :)

Camryn's last popsicle since surgery time was pushed back from 3 to 5 pm.

Camryn getting her hair washed by a fellow shunt friend, Nick ;)

Camryn pulled her IV out when she was waiting for her turn in the OR, so Matt fixed her up.

Camryn then had to go to surgery, once the doctor left his mark :)

This is how she came back to me.

Two hours later, she had a popsicle and she was feeling...

After several doses of medicine, she still had to maintain her medicine schedule. Did you know with new HIPPA laws that the name tags have to be torn off of the syringe before throwing them in the trash. REALLY? I mean seriously, what lengths will people go to to get personal information to steal?

After Eggs went well the next morning, we were allowed to have a full lunch for her!

Then it was off to a bath! It was a cool ARGO tub, google it if you need a $20k tub!


And then she was free to go :)

I took about 350 pictures in the 48 hours and plan to put it in a book for her to know what she goes through in the process.
I hope it wasn't too graphic for you!

It's HERE!!

I have been waiting for a couple of months for this bad boy to replace our broken camera and now it's here! I am such a picture junkie! I mean, my blog was almost paralyzed without one! I already started taking pictures, but can't wait to see what this baby can really do :) Look out! There might be several posts!!!!

Some Recent Work

I really want to try making some cards for other people with this stamp, but I have three girls and a boy. Might have to find another fun purpose for it! Now I just need to get the pictures from this weekend's work uploaded :)

What's your name's hidden meaning?

You Are Powerful and Determined

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

My husband totally agrees this is me. I think this is why scrapbooking works for me, I am always just starting :)

Isn't she cute?

My daycare provider is amazing. For those who know here she's so giving, no matter what. We are so lucky to have her. she has helped Camryn through everything. She has three kids, her oldest 12, the second one, is in Mikayla's class, and her third is Arianna. She's two days older than Camryn. She's full of spunk and won't take no for an answer. She's also very hard to get a good picture of. Good being defined as looking at the camera and smiling. Well I have been bringing my point and shoot around until I get my dslr just because I am giddy to have a camera again! So when I picked up Camryn on Wednesday, I was able to snap these! She looks so obedient, doesn't she? I caught her on a good day, I think :)


Happy 6th Birthday Arianna!!!

Help Mandie Hit 2500 and some Blog Candy!

Mandy has such great daily inspirations that I wanted to help her out and try for some blog candy HERE!!!

BLOG CANDY!

I love my friend Andrea, she has taken me under her scrapbooking wing and has helped me figure so many things out to help me do what I love. So when she has blog candy, I love to enter mostly because I think it brings traffic to all the cool things she does at her site! techniques, sketches, layout ideas, some of the newest paper lines and the links to more great people like her! But when I saw the blog candy was autumn leaves, I couldn't resist! Check it out here!!!

Look who's 5!!!

I can't even tell you guys how glad I am that she is here today. To think that when we found out about the pregnancy, we were scared. Elli was 6 months old, my size for dates were off, and the doctors were ordering tests like crazy. I couldn't peel myself out of the chair, I couldn't say to Dan, "I'm pregnant", I just couldn't move. It was tough finding out I was pregnant again. The likelyhood of a girl who needed therapy every day was frightening to me, the student mom of three who just started going back to school to leave the stay at home life. I was almost mortified. I hate to admit that some days, but I was. A couple of weeks went by and I slipped in my response (not hiding it under my breath enough) and Dan caught on. I still hadn't come to grips with it, and I needed to keep him calm? This was the first challenge in a line of many that we weren't sure we could handle. So as he absorbed it, It relived my shock and he started calming me down. I was a babbling, crying mess. He kept telling me, "we'll figure it all out". As the ultrasound day approached, I remember thinking, why are my dates off? were my calculations wrong? nope, calendar has it all tracked, did my temps double shift? perhaps, but what if they didn't? what was wrong?
So as I went through the motions, trying to shut my brain off, I learned that I was infact 3 weeks smaller, measuring at 8 when I was sure I was 11. For those that know me, this NEVER happens. Not in my family. So when I saw the doctor he knew my tracking capability and that I was probably right about my dates, but he figured stress pushed off my ovulation, even though I still had a temp shift. So he ordered another ultrasound for 3 weeks later, because even he said something must be off, you have miralcle grow. Then he chuckled as he left the room. I went back home to Dan teling him what we found and he said, "well I am sure it's fine". So I muttered through the next few weeks and went to the ultrasound in tears. Then the cell rings, it's my mother. She didn't know yet, she asked why I was crying. When I told her I was pregnant, she was just as shocked as I was, but based off my blood test and ultra sounds they were thinking that she had CP or that something was going wrong all together her voice changed. I will never forget the shift in tone. We went, we were still 3 weeks smaller but progressing on track it seemed so he changed my due date. My February 15th date became March 10th with the motion of his pen. UGH. Not like I wasn't already pregnant for the last three years or anything.
So we went through the next few months wondering what the third u/s would tell us. Screening for defects at this point was quite a bit easier to detect, but I just kept thinking to myself, it's a boy, so everything is okay. When the tech said girl I cried. When it was 90 minutes later and they had the third doctor come in to look at her, I was terrified beyond all belief. I was sure they found something.
NOTHING. "She's fine, we don't see anything, but we would like to screen her again around 35 weeks". Off we went. I feel like I sat in silence for the next four months. I coudn't focus on anything but the fact that therapy wasn't over, that I was going to school but couldn't use any of it for another 5 years. I was such a pessamist then.
So at the last screening they found nothing wrong again and a part of me just knew they were wrong. They were wrong about Mikayla and Elli, I was going to be stuck at home forever, I was convinced. Then she was born. I will never forget Dan walking in the room, afraid to look at my face after waking up and holding her for the first time. I thought it was because he thought I was going to lose it, but he was scared I wouldn't have the done look on my face that he'd heard so much about from co-workers. When he finally looked at me, he smiled. It was pure peace. I remember sitting there with her, test after test, trying to figure out what was wrong, all tests came up normal. They did until her first birthday and let me tell you, there is nothing like a neurosugeon's office leaving you 3 messages to give you validation :)
So Cam has hydrocephalus, she can live with it, "she will be normal in weeks" is what everyone kept telling me. I knew something was wrong, I know that my kid was mello because of what she had, but I still knew, just by looking at her, something was really wrong. And in October of 2007 I was validated again. The school called, Camryn went unconsious after dazing and started puking, I was to meet her at the hospital by ambulance. WOW. Seizure after seizure, I saw what I was home for. I finally got what we were doing. We were giving her the best start ever. And now that we have only had three seizures in 5 months, I feel wonderful about the opportunity to be home with her, help her along the way. I am grateful that I have been her mom. That I have learned so much from her. I don't regret my feelings in the begining because I feel they brought us here. To her 5th birthday, where she's happy, healthy ,and telling the world "you haven't seen the last of me yet!"
I'm so proud of this tough cookie!!

A Good Sign...

This is a good sign that I am feeling much better. Coffee is king in my life, king I tell ya. It keeps me going, it helps me stay focused, but most of all it helps me get less sleep when there aren't enough hours in the day :) I was sick with what I thought was a sinus infection, what was later confirmed on my first sick day at Vital as an employee. Then the next day when breathing was hard and I just couldn't describe it as anything less than an elephant on my chest, I knew it was time to go back. Dr visit number two confirmed my worst fear. Influenza. YUK! I actually thought that he was kidding, but no, I get the flu shot, I get the flu. Bummer for me. I was down and out for about 6-8 days depending on where you start the count. Wednesday I felt like a truck hit me, Thursday like he backed over me again because my face was so swollen, and by Friday, he decided to run over me again and I slept almost 20 hours in a 24 hour period. YUK, YUK, YUK!!!
So now that I am back to work, and I feel that much better, I have decided that coffee is a good thing. Especially since I am not experiencing hte Vertigo side of the virus anymore :) For those of you who have seen the sleepwalking dog on YouTube, you know what I mean!

Treasures, once lost, now found!

Dan and I were given our first digital camera by his mother. It was a Fuji 3 megapixel and we thought it was the coolest thing back in 2003 and we were sure it would help us spend less on photos since we wouldn't print the ones we didn't want. Boy were we wrong! This fuji did us proud for about two years when the kids became faster than the camera could handle. So we decided to take still pictures with it only.
Well Dan took it to Montana to get some scenery pictures...




And this was great to see. There were some kids shots, not the best, but they get the job done so those moments weren't lost.




But when I started looking at the photos that were uploading I noticed something I thought I would never have the chance to get back.
I made a Family Tree timeline scrapbook for Dan's grandmother and then about two weeks before the party I learned that I would have to work the day of the party. I was so sad about it. Everyone told me she loved it, but it wasn't the same as being there. Especially for someone who is so photo addicted, yk? So I loved seeing that I didn't have to miss her reaction at all :)



Such a joy to find lost treasure.