At Home in the Mountains

My dad got the prettiest bowling shoes I've ever seen. Aaron flying off a jump at Monarch. Dad and Ethan passive aggressively protesting having their picture taken. Brad and Cindy at R,H,&B. Cindy and Tammy at Red, Hot, & Blue. This is a BBQ restaurant we went to for our family's Christmas activity. Ethan, Aaron, and Tammy playing legos. My mom had them in storage and Ethan wanted them to take home to play with his friends. Hmmm... My parents new house. On a walk with the family and dogs. This trail is by my parents house and follows an old rail line. Tammy and Ethan went through a lot of junk that they had in storage at my parents. My mom had also decided to give her wedding dress to the thrift store. She was very thin when she got married and no one in the family could fit her dress. We were taking one last look at it before it got donated. We played Bible Pictionary one night. Playing with my dad was hilarious. Monarch ski area. Aaron, my brother, and my dad went ski

Our own little Christmas celebration before we left for Dallas. We had chocolate fondue with strawberries and bananas and opened presents and stockings. This is Aaron opening his electric kettle I got him for work so that he can make hot tea, Ramen, dried soup, whatever in his office. This is Aaron trying to get Seal interested in his present--catnip toys. Seal was very interested but he wasn't showing it because the dogs were there to observe. He played with his toys later after the dogs left him alone. This is me getting my one of my favorite stocking stuffers--dark chocolate!!!! YUM! Aaron giving the dogs their favorite treat. Houdini especially LOVES rawhide bones. Abbey with her cone collar on. She looked like a little Chinese doggie. Thankfully we took it off on Friday and she has been much happier. We are now in Colorado at my parents. WE're about to go to ARC to look for skis for my dad. Dad, Aaron, and Ethan are going to go to Monarch tomorrow. I am glad I can't

This could be our last visit to the cardiologist!!! Unless our high risk doc feels like he sees something the cardiologist needs to look at he thinks that Maddy's heart looks fine now. The way he put it was if he had not seen us before he would say it looks normal. He thought it might be still slightly shifted back in the chest just a bit, but couldn't even say that for sure. If had definitely rotated back into the correct position, the anatomy looked good, everything looked normal. So we are praising God today for this great news and all of you can praise him with us. This is an amazing blessing from God. We are still praying for her feet of course because we don't know what is going on with them, but that is not as huge of a concern as the heart for us. At least, not right now. Thanks for all your prayers and keep praying for us. Other news: We had Abbey fixed on Sunday. We went to a mobile vet clinic in Lewisville. She was pretty groggy the first night. She hate the cone

We went to the high risk pregnancy doc today for another sonogram. This time he could see all four chambers of the heart, the pulmonary valve, etc. In his words it looked "dramatically better". He feels there is still some slight compression on the heart and that we need to continue watching it. As of now he cannot see anything that is causing it and the MRI did not see anything either. He also felt that the hands were okay. They are not clenched fists at least as he first thought, meaning that the fingers aren't overlapping each other. Her hands are still in fists and she won't open them but he said he has had other babies that have not opened their fist in the sonogram but the hands have been normal at birth, so we still have a lot of hope for those little hands. He was able to get a better look at the face today, no cleft palate, so that is a huge blessing. The feet are still concerning. They are definitely clubbed but she is also not moving them. She is moving her

Quick update. We got a call from the doctor's office this afternoon. My chromosomes are perfectly normal, thank you very much. Aaron is the one with the variant in chromosome 15. So the baby got it from him. This is great news!! Praise God!!! They also did not see any "masses" on the MRI around the baby's heart. So they have ruled that out, praise God again! Thank you again for all your prayers. I can't say that enough. Keep them coming! :) We have gotten so much good news but we definitely still need your prayers for the baby and for us, well I should say me specifically, to stay steady emotionally. We went to listen to a performance of Handel's Messiah last Friday by the DBU choir. One of the verses from the piece was really encouraging and comforting to me. "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, and He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.--Isaiah 40:11" This verse just str

Just wanted to put up some pictures of goings on for a change. Our party was fun last night. I took pictures of the people who came, BUT my camera has never taken good pictures of people in indoor lighting since I dropped it on our hike in the Grand Canyon. Really annoying but oh well! The people always come out kind of blurry. The picture of Seal is as close as I could get to a pose in front of the Christmas tree with him. haha. The dogs did pose for me. They were awesome. I told them where to sit and then I told them to stay and they actually did it for me until I told them I was done. They are growing up! :)

Well, I was holding off updating because I thought the doctor's office was going to call us with more information, but I haven't heard from them. If they call today I will add to this update. So yesterday was the MRI. I can say that I hope I don't have too many of those in my life. They are very uncomfortable because you go into this tiny little space where you can't see anything except the top of the machine in you face. You can't move, so if something starts falling asleep, too bad. They had me on my back of course because they were trying to look at the baby and I have to say that it gave me a backache. Anyhow, more importantly than my small discomforts, the initial things she was seeing were positive. No holes in the diaphram that might be allowing organs to shift up and move the heart over. She said she had 100's of images to look at and so she was going to analyze those and then call our doctor yesterday afternoon. So I'm hoping they will let us know w

The high risk pregnancy doctor's office called today and the results from the chromosome test are normal. This is great news. Praise God! is all I can think over and over again. They said there is a slight variation on chromosome 15 but it is not enough to explain the problems they have seen with the baby. It is possible that Aaron or I could have this variation. If so then we'll know the baby is definitely fine from the chromasomal standpoint. So we are going in tomorrow morning to get our blood drawn to test and see if one of us has this variation. So we are thankful for good news again today. We still don't know what is going on with the heart necessarily. We'll go in for the MRI on Thursday to try to learn more about that. So please keep praying for Maddy and us and that God will protect her. When I think about the past two weeks and how much things have changed it really amazes me what God can do and I attribute all of it and me and Aaron being able to get through

Wanted to ask for prayers for a couple of more things. One is that we should be getting the full chromosomal test back on Monday or Tuesday of next week. I have to say that I'm very nervous about that and what is going to happen. Second is that I have to go in for an MRI on the baby's heart on the 4th. This is to make sure there is nothing on the outside of the heart that is causing it to shift like it has. So we thought we were done with doctor's appointments for awhile, but no. The MRI takes 1-3 hours so I will need a lot of patience to just lay there while they are doing it. We have had a good time with our family so far. It has been nice to relax and just let ourselves take a break from everything for a while. We've been at my Mema and Papa's house in Farwell and we'll head over to my other grandparents house today. My Papa is at home and that has been great to see. Last time I saw him (last Thanksgiving) he was in the hospital and not in his right mind due

We went to see the genetic counselor this morning at 10. What we found out was hopeful for now, although we'll have to continue watching to see how thing develop. She said from what the doctors had communicated to her and from the initial results of the fish test (test for the chromosomal defects) and because I have been feeling the baby move every day, right now she thinks the baby may have a condition called Amyoplasia Congenita. This is a condition where the baby develops normally except for the hands and feet which can be corrected through orthopedic treatment, at least to some extent. People with this condition can live normal lives. This is obviously the best news we've had all week and much better than where we were a week ago. However, this isn't a diagnosis. We still need to watch the baby's development and also get the complete results from the chromosomal testing. BUT we are so thankful that today we have good news and something to hope for. For those (like m

We saw the pediatric cardiologist today. They looked at the baby's heart a lot on the sonogram. This doctor's conclusion is that the prospect for the heart its self is better than we were given before. The heart is small but it is anatomically correct. I guess I was more right than I knew when I wrote at first because he said the heart was shifted a little to the left and twisted a little from the normal position but he said that the heart will work even if the position is wrong and if everything continues to develop correctly then it should be able to work without any kind of surgery at birth. Again the only concern is that it is smaller than usual for the gestational period. So while this sounds good we don't know if this is hopeful or not. We will meet with the geneticist on Monday to try to determine what or if genetic issues are involved for the problems that they are seeing right now. This is all we know for today and the doctor today told us that he can't say if

Wanted to let you all know we got the report from the amniocentesis today. All of the chromosomes they looked at on the quick test came back normal. So it's not trisomy 13, trisomy 18, down's, or triploidy. They will get the complete kariotype back next week sometime. So because all these results were negative we will have to go to the cardiologist tomorrow and then to the geneticist on Monday. We'll know more after seeing the cardiologist tomorrow at 11:45, but from what they have been telling us it does not look good. I was a little confused about what I told you all about the heart on Tuesday so I'll explain that again. It is not developing in the wrong place. The problem is that the heart basically only has a left side. So the side that brings air flow to the lungs is not developing. We just ask your continued prayers for wisdom and strength for us as we try to figure out what is going on and what our options are. It may be that another chromosome that hasn'

Many of you have probably heard all ready, but Aaron and I got some devastating news today. Our baby will probably not survive outside the womb. They did an amneostasis this afternoon to test for chromasomal defects, which is what they think it is right now. I know I am spelling everything wrong so I hope what I write makes enough sense for everyone to understand what is going on. The specialist we went to see feels that it is triploidy or triamias 18. Those may not be the right names but they are two of the three chromasomal defects. The other is down's syndrome. He did not feel that it was down's. The other two defects are fatal so if we carry the baby to term it will not live but for a few days or hours if one of the defects above is the problem. We will know in 2days. If it is not one of those then we will have to go to a cardiologist and a genetic counselor. The baby had clubbed hands and feel and it's heart is not formed correctly and is not in the right place. Becau

SOLD! This puppy went home on Saturday. We got $250 for her. I would have definitely liked a little more since she was a tri but we'll take what we can get! SOLD! (AGAIN!) We got $300 for JJ the second go around. Jessica you sure know how to pick a dog! :) She went home with a family that had three kids. SOLD? A guy came over last night to look at the puppies. He is looking for a dog that would make a good hunting dog. He liked Mustache (below) and Little Miss. He went home to talk to his wife about which dog they wanted and is supposed to let us know. I think he'll take Mustache, but I don't know. Needs a home! Poor Little Miss. She would have a home if weenie lady hadn't given JJ back. She is so cute and sweet. She is calm and would make a great pet for anybody. Aaron wants her to go home with my parents at Thanksgiving but that is not happening. Somehow my Dad equates owning a dog to letting it sleep in your bed. Hmmm. Needs a home! Roley is an active boy. I th

Roslyn (named after some science person by Aaron). She is the first tri colored puppy we have ever had. Her tan markings started coming in about a week ago. She has the tan "eyebrows" though you can't really see them in this picture. You can see a little of the tan color on her hip. I have always want to have a tri puppy so this is really cool. Roley the puppy. A b/w male. The Onsie? Is this what that is? This is the first gift we got for the baby. ************************* First order of drama, I felt the baby move for the first time on Wenesday. I was writing an email to my mom and I suddenly felt like someone thumped me from inside my stomach. It took a second before I realized, "Hey! That was the baby!" It was so cool. We have had a little dog drama since last I wrote. Jessica Jr. is back with us. The lady who bought her called Sunday right after we got out of church to say that the puppy was not working out with her dog. Her dog was getting upset at the pup

Happy Halloween! Last year I posted a gruesome Halloween story for your enjoyment. This year I am posting a gruesome Halloween picture at the bottom of this blog that will chill you to your bones. Bwahahahahahaha! Happy Haunting! Daisy aka Jessica Freckles ****************************** I must think I'm in a competition to come up with the longest blog title lately. Anyhow, we sold another puppy last night. So Daisy May nee Jessica, Jr. and Freckles have new homes. We only got $300 for Freckles, but that is okay. They are 8 weeks on Sunday so we need to sell them ASAP. We have another guy that may be interested but we haven't heard back from him yet so he may not be anymore. Yesterday I had a marathon session of working on my 30 page paper and I FINISHED IT! This is a huge weight off my shoulders. I feel like I can make it through the rest of the semester without having a mental breakdown now. I will have to proof read of course but that's no big deal. So as a reward, I'

We sold the first puppy today! Jessica, Jessica Jr. was the pick of the litter, so you gave your name to a good puppy. The new owners will pick her up next Friday. That is a relief to at least have one down; however, we've had no other calls on any of the puppies so we need to find another place to advertise and keep praying that we can get rid of them all. The people who got this puppy had a Springer already that was 11 years old and they love him so it wasn't hard to sell them a cute little Springer puppy. They are so cute that if you can get people to come look they sell themselves. I am 20 pages down on my 30 page paper now. Hopefully I can bust those last 10 pages out this week without a hitch. I really hope I don't get in another class that requires a paper this long. Please never make your students write a paper this long if you are a teacher, unless it is their dissertation or something major like that. It is torture. Especially since I don't particularly care a

I stayed home from church today because I'm sick. I got a little cold over the weekend. I am not sure where it came from. I don't think I've been around anyone who was sick. Anyhow, my throat felt so sore this morning but I think it was just exceptionally dry. After drinking several cups of hot drinks and gargling Aaron's concoction for sore throats, it feels much better. Ugg. I hate being sick! We planted some cosmos back at the beginning of the summer. All summer they looked just horrible. They never bloomed and the plants had a sickly yellow color. Well in the past few weeks they have gotten much better and now they are blooming! I love cosmos. Cosmos are definitely summer flowers in Colorado, but I am learning that what works great in summer in Colorado is better planted in the fall in Dallas. I will probably plant my cosmos around the end of August next year. We did find a flower that is great for summer in Dallas though. It is called vinca and they handle the heat

I'm showing! Aaron was to lazy to stand up to take the picture, thus the weird angle. Piggyback ride! What can I get into next? Fingers make great chew toys. ************************************* My mom and sisters have been hinting that I should put a picture up of myself when I started to show so the picture is mostly for them. It is very strange to look at myself in the mirror and see...a belly. I feel large already although I know I will get a lot bigger than this before it's all over. It is just a strange feeling. I can't explain it. It is kind of cool though because I am starting to feel like I really am pregnant. Now I am excited to feel the baby move. I'm coming to the end of the 4th month and some people can feel their baby around that time, though not everybody. So we'll see what happens. I have always heard the feeling described as butterflies in the stomach but one of my friends who is pregnant told me she would describe it as someone poking you from the

Playing spades. Deciding what to do next after a show. Sand sculpture. This year's theme was King Tut. Butterfly from butterfly gardens. (Ethan got this great picture for me.) *********************** This was the long anticipated fair weekend! Eleven of us got together and went to the Texas State Fair. It was a great day! And a great weekend. Jessica came in on Wednesday so we got lots of good hanging out time with her, and then everyone else came in on Friday. We played games Friday night and then on Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the fair. We parked at Tricia's house and walked about a mile to get to the fairgrounds. When we got there the ticket people wouldn't let Tricia in because she didn't have her school id so she and Matt had to walk all the way back to her apartment to get it. Meanwhile the rest of us went to get a corn dog (after the usual long drawn out family debate about what we should do) and then went to see a dog show with these

Girl/boy test. Last day inside. The puppies new home. Look at the sweet bed I found! Oh wait, this is my sister. *************** ...girl? As you can see there is a picture of a beaker full of orange/yellow liquid. Well that's my pee combined with sodium hydroxide. Aaron's professor from York, Dr. Ray, had been doing this test to determine the sex of a baby at 12-13 weeks fetal age for 30 years and he has never been wrong. You combine about a tablespoon of sodium hydroxide with a urine sample and let it sit for 30 minutes. If it turns red, orange, pink, or red it's a girl. If it turns blue or green, it's a boy. Aaron did the test Monday morning but he didn't get a good picture of it because he stirred it up for some reason and it made the pee turn yellow again. So we did again this morning. So if Dr. Ray's fool proof test works, we're having a girl. We're saying we're about 95% sure right now since we've never personally conducted this test before

This puppy started out on Aaron's stomach and worked it's way up to his ear. It decided to try out his ear and his hair to see if they were edible. See the pretty eyes! Comfy in the puppy pile. So I'm a little obsessive this time about documenting the puppies lives, but since this is the last time it is kind of fun. At least the last time until we get a barn. Their eyes started opening the day after I posted the last pictures. It is funny to watch because some of them will have about a day where one eye is open and the other is still shut. They look like little pirates or something. Apparently when Aaron went downstairs this morning they had all gotten out of the puppy bed and were laying on a piece of the blanket that was draped over onto the floor. Just sleeping thank goodness! They don't have teeth yet so they can't run around and chew stuff up quite yet. The biggest puppy has been working his way out all week long, so we're going to have to go meet up with