update

After 20 hours of waiting in the E.R. Zachary has been moved up to the G.P.U.
Chris is still with him. It will be my turn on Thursday. The doctors say he has some type of Flu/croup thing. They say tomorrow should be worse, then better from there. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that he gets better soon.

Try walking in my shoes

This week has been hard on Zachary. Since we have been home from Florida his seizures have been getting worse and worse. Kayla and Aaron have been sick with Some type of respiratory/flu thing. On Monday we decided that we wanted to take Zachary into the hospital to get some help with the seizures, but found out that his Nuro. was out of town until Wednesday. So we thought that we would wait until then. Tuesday night Zachary started getting a fever, and throwing up. His nurse came at 8 and by 9 she was thinking that he needed to be taken to the E.R. His heart rate was really high, he was vomiting and having diarrea. We tried giving him small amounts of fluid, but even when we gave him only 1 teaspoon he would throw it right back up. I asked Chris if he would take him in for me this time. He said he would and arrived to the E.R. around 10:45. The E.R. was packed so he knew it would be a long night. After they took him back, they could not get a I.V. in him, so he went all night with out any food or meds. Around 4 o'clock they finally got someone to come down from the P.I.C.U. and they got the I.V. in. I can't believe that it took that long. That's not the worst part, Chris and Zach are still in the E.R. The hospital is full and they have to wait for someone to be discharged before they can get Zachary into a room. It is now 9:30, and they have been in the E.R. for almost 11 hours. I hope they get a room soon. I told Chris how bad I felt for him, but he said not to worry about it. He knows I have had my share of sleepless nights in a hospital room chair. (hence the title: try walking in my shoes.) It's not 4 Weeks in Miami, but he has the idea. I hope that they get a room soon. Can you imagine what it will be like if we do get a pandemic like the swine flu! Scary!

Florida

Well,I am back from Florida, and had a wonderful time! I loved the humidity, and miss it greatly. I was only there for one day when I noticed how smooth and beautiful my hands and arms were. I couldn't stop touching them. They were as soft as a baby's butt. Not to mention a beautiful golden brown. Now that I am back they look like an elephants butt. Not so beautiful any more. On the first day I planned to spend time with my sister and her kids at the pool all day, but she called and said they were sick with the flu. What bad luck, the pool at the resort was awesome, and her kids would have had so much fun. Zachary and I still went swimming and had as much fun as we could. Thank goodness we did, because the next day a storm came in and cooled everything down. The rest of the week it was about 75 degrees which was nice, but not what I call swimming weather. The next day, I drove down to see my good friend Kristen, and her son Morgan. If you don't know, Kristen's son Morgan is very smiler to my Sarah, and Zachary. We are not sure if they have the same thing, because nobody knows what they have. Maybe one day we will know. Any way, if you were wondering, Morgan is doing very well. He is 11 now, and quite tall. I'm not sure how Kristen can carry him, but she does. She held Zachary, and commented on how light he was. I hold Zachary and think my arms are going to fall off. I guess I will get stronger as he gets bigger. Kristen's non-profit, the MORGAN project is doing well. She has done such wonderful things with it. She was chosen to be on the Montel show to receive a cash award given to the Morgan project. She was one of four woman chosen because of the amazing things they were doing for their community. She will also be on a cable channel I think it's TLC, to do a show about the day in the life of a handicapped child. I don't have cable, but I hope I can get a friend who will record it for me. A few days latter, I had a girls night out. Chris watched the baby, and my girlfriends, and my sister met me for a walk along the beach, and a late night snack after. It was awesome. Girls need friends!!!! If you don't have friends right now, get some, one day you will need them. The next day, one of our friends hosted a pot-luck for us, so our church friends could come by and say hi! That was fun. After, we went to see our old house. It looked beautiful, I love how my friend is taking care of it. I hope to move back someday. On our last day, we shopped for souvenirs for the kids and pick up a boars house sub from our favorite grocery store Publix. I was soooooo good. Not everything about Florida was wonderful. I had forgotten about the taste of the water, YUCK! And when I tried to dry my clothes, It took for ever. Oh well no one is perfect, and no place is for that matter. I am going to try and enjoy where I am for the moment, who knows where I will be next year!

PS- I finally got to see my sisters kids at the pot-luck. This is a picture of her premee Silas. Look at those eyes, he seems healthy, he just needs to grow into those peepers! Also a picture of Anna. I love that girl. I'm missing a picture of the other three kids because they were playing out side most of the time Sorry guys, I love you too!

EASTER

Wow what can I say about Easter? It's another one of those holidays I just love. I remember when the older kids were young and we had so much fun on each and every holiday. Then they grew up! they still wanted the gifts, candy, and the food that came along with each holiday, but they could care less for all of the little extra things that make holidays so fun. It was no longer fun to talk about Santa, or the Easter bunny. No need to color eggs, or make decorations. I still require that they sing Christmas songs, and, make time to talk about the saviour, but it's just not as fun as it used to be. Now we have Adam, and he is the only child still willing and able to enjoy all of those fun extras! I have to try hard to remember to do those extra things, so that he wont miss out on the fun. As you can see by the picture, Adam loved painting eggs. Aaron helped out so that Adam wouldn't have to do it alone. (I was tied up with a baby in my arms.) He had tons of fun trying to find the eggs that the Easter bunny had hidden, all of the kids helped with this part. They all had fun finding the eggs, and it helped the older kids to know that some of the plastic eggs that the Easter bunny had brought had candy in some, and money in others. Every time Adam found an egg that he had colored, he would get all excited and tell me that he found HIS egg. I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter.

Florida update

tic...toc....tic...toc....tic....toc

Well it's almost time to go to Florida! I am still excited, but extreamly scared. The past few weeks have been hard ones for Zachy. His seizures have been getting out of control. We bumped up one of his medicines, and it made him so limp that he started refluxing all of the time, and to top it off it did not help the seizures. the Doctor sugested bumping up the other two medicines. We are keeping our fingers crossed. We already have our tickets and are still going. It might not be much of a vacation. I bet you are all wondering if I lost my 10 pounds. Well..... not quite. I was loosing for the first few days about half a pound a day. I was fealing great and exercising all of the time, but to keep my calorie count down, I had to give up cooking so much. After about 6 days, I fell off the wagon. What can I say, I'm adddicted to food, and having the baby sick and Chris working over time all week, I just coulden't do it. I am a weakling!! I havent been on the scale in a few days, and I am worried that I might have actually gained weight. Oh well, I matterith not. Wish me luck in Florida.

Look out Florida, I am on my way!

Chris has a conference in Florida in a few days, 11 to be exact, and guess who gets to tag along. ME! Zachary gets to come along for the ride considering Chris and I are the only ones that know how to take care of him. I wish that we could take all of the kids, but with a family of this size, cost was an issue. Things will work out well for us considering Chris's work will be picking up the bill for food, lodging, and his airfare. I got a great deal on airfare for me, so It's almost like to free vacation. I am so excited!! I can't Waite to feel the humidity, and the weather should be perfect this time of year. Not to hot, and not hurricane season. I will get to see my house, my friends, and my sister. How cool is that? The only problem? I hate to go back to Florida fatter then when I left! How vain of me. When I left Florida, I was still carrying the baby fat from my then 5 month old. Three years latter I am still carrying that fat, and some more from my now 14 month old. How sad is that? I am about 10 pounds heavier, and one pants size bigger. I have 10 days to loose 10 pounds! Can I do it? I'll let you know, wish me luck!!

Spring break!!

Yea! Spring is here, and I'm loving it. What a fantastic time of year. My plants are growing, although they seem to be slow bloomers, they are beautiful. I love to watch things grow. Plants as well as kids. We were going to go on a vacation this week, but a cold front put a damper on our plans. Who wants to drive 8-12 hours, and not be able to enjoy the outdoors. It's not a vacation for me unless it includes allot of hiking, and water sports. After giving up my sorrow about not going away, Chris and I decided to make staying home fun. On the First day, I used the spa gift certificate that Chris gave me for christmas to get a salt scrub. It was awesome! No, I'm not a spa snob, but I wish I could be. After that I decided to go on a walk with Adam, and Aaron. I wanted to make at least 5 miles, but Kayla kept calling me saying, "Are you done yet? I need a ride to my friends." I cut the walk short just to get her off my back. It was still a 3 mile walk, and good enough for me. The next day, we went to the Mall to eat lunch and get some See's candies before heading to the Zoo. (Can you believe I have lived in New Mexico for three years, and have never been to the Zoo.) We all had a wonderful time, excluding Zach who felt the ride was to bumpy. He needs shock absorbers on his wheelchair. I don't have any pictures of the Zoo because Kayla was taking all of the pictures with a film camera for her photo class. The assignment was texture. She found loads of it at the zoo. We walked over 6 miles that day, and we were bushed. Good luck to the kids that are going on trek this summer and have to walk 12-16 miles in one day. On the third day, we took the kids, as well as Ryan (Kayla's boyfriend), and his brother Kevin(who is Aaron's age) to ITZ. ITZ is a place with games, rides , and an all you can eat buffet. they also have rooms to eat your food with movies playing in them. This kids had a blast. On the fourth day, I woke up with the need to do some work around the house. The up stairs needed to be painted badly. Chris and I were at odds about the color. I wanted a blue/grey, or a red/brown. Chris wanted a light tan, or a light pink/brown. We finally decided on a color that was darker like I wanted, but more of Chris's color choice. I think that It was called burnt apricot. It is beautiful at night, when the lights are on, but a Little to peach-ish in the day light. Oh well, I am the worst at picking colors, but I think I like it anyway. On the last day, I thought it would be fun to make different kids of pizza. I made a deep dish pizza with a buttery, garlic crust and a round thinner crusty pizza. I also made the sauce from scratch, which was a new thing for me. It took allot longer then I thought, and we ended up with an early dinner, instead of the late lunch I was planning. Today Chris went back to work, and things are back to normal. We might have one last family fun day on Friday, or Saturday. We'll see. Oh yes, and the kids are helping with spring cleaning. These pictures are proof that they do clean. Christian helps too, but I can never seem to get him in a picture.



Aaron is shirtless an usuall, and doing a wonderful job of dusting. Kayla is working on the kitchen. She always ends up with the kitchen!