July 10, 2006

First of all, I cannot believe the Fourth of July is over with already! Summer is flying by. I have been out of school for just a month now and still have way too much scrapbooking to get done with yet. Leah is having some wonderful days. Our doctor/hospital visits are fairly minimal now so we have returned to some form of normalcy here in terms of that. Last Thursday I took Leah for a blood draw at Covenant so they could check her electrolyte levels. She was pleased to find out it was only a finger poke, and we were even more pleased later when they halved her medications again. So, she has gone from 6 ml of potassium 2x per day to 3 ml in the morning. She still takes magnesium and fleet as well in the morning, and will have to take bactrim for a while yet on Mon, Tues, and Wed., but they have eliminated calcium altogether. Since they made another cut in her medications, we will be going for a blood draw again this week to make sure her levels are still OK. The big day for an AFP check is July 27, so we are praying for a normal reading and hope you will continue to pray for her as well.

In the past week we have been very busy! Leah has started to scrapbook with me. She has her own book, which means that Chloe also wants to scrapbook. They think it is great fun, but I am not very fast with my two helpers by my side. Leah has proudly showed her scrapbook to many people. On Wednesday last week we all went to Adventureland with my sister, Suzanne. The girls had never been there before and enjoyed it a lot. (If I can figure out how to put some pictures on here, I will add those later). The bumper cars were an especially big hit. We also visited Suzanne's new condo she bought, shopped at Archivers for scrapbooking supplies, ate at the Macaroni Grill, went to Barnes and Noble, and visited the Fickbohms (the girls just had to meet their baby-who just turned one- Abby) before coming home. Leah told me it was a fun day, but she was really tired. The night before we had watched fireworks with the Epleys and did not come home until after 11, so I was very tired and could certainly see why the girls were.

We have also had fun with Drea, who visited us and helped us use our Dora sprinkler. Leah had been inquiring about when she was going to go back to daycare again, so instead of Chloe going last week, I took Leah there for a few hours on Friday. I think she enjoyed that, too, and has always talked about daycare as though she were there just yesterday even though she had not been there since right after Thanksgiving.

This week we are going to try to get in for a massage, which is something Leah has been requesting for a while. We also need to work out several playdates, and she is wanting to visit my dad's friend, Lavern, who has told her he has a saddle for his little horse so that she can ride it. In the evenings this week she has VBS -that started last night- and she was ready for us to drop her off and be on our way.

Chris and Leah will be leaving for Missoula, MT in just ten days for a visit with Chris' brother. This will be her first plane ride and her first time away from home without me for any length of time. I know she is looking forward to it and has a whole agenda planned out.

Once again, we thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts for our family. We continue to ask that you pray for Leah's AFP to remain in the normal range (we like 3.5 or lower :)) and for her good health.