Landon has had tonsillitis three times this year! He often told me that his throat felt like a "piece of garbage"! After three confirmed cases, a dr. will normally refer you to an ENT, which is what happened to us in July! Our first visit with Dr. Dejti was July 22nd. Dr. Dejti was very good with Landon, very funny and comforting concerning the procedure. He scheduled the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy for August 5th. The dr. asked if Landon snores and I said "no he never does." And Landon said, "yeah mom remember that time you recorded me snoring and I sounded like this {loud snore noise inserted here!}" He is so funny!
About a week before the surgery, Landon started running a fever and had a sore throat! Another case of tonsillitis! He had to start on an antibiotic so he could even HAVE the surgery on schedule! This particular antibiotic he had never been on, and of course, he got the diarrhea side effect! Poor guy!!
On August 5th, we reported to Marshall Browning a little before 7am. We bought Landon a Lego Batman shirt especially for this "occasion" and his excitement to wear it made the morning a little better! He was so brave: he hopped right up in the hospital bed and listened to all the nurse and anesthesiologist had to say. The nurse gave him his gown and we went to the bathroom to put it on. Only then did he admit to being scared. When he put his arms in the gown, he said "I think I'm a little too scared for this." That, of course, broke my heart, but I kept my "brave mom" face on. (Which was good practice for taking Kayla to SEMO a couple of weeks later!)
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We got to sit with him for a little while and watch tv. (His room had an awesome tv that swiveled any way he needed it to be comfortable and he could put it as close to his face as he wanted!!) When the nurse came and said it was time for him to go, we kissed him goodbye and they wheeled him away. It was the saddest thing!
About an hour and a half later, the nurse (Kathy) came to the w aiting room and said he was all done! She said he did very well, but he had vomited once, which is normal. The sweet, happy little boy who was wheeled away was replaced by a sad, sleepy little boy who felt horrible! But he was still watching his TV :) and drinking ice water! I didn't feel very well watching him be so sick, and when the dr. came to talk to me, I said "I'm not feeling so good." He called for the nurse to bring him a bed because he had a mom passing out! Oh my gosh, I was so embarrassed!! I could feel myself passing out, although I never did. No, I was awake enough to be humiliated! The nurse and dr. who were SUPPOSED to be taking care of Landon were now standing beside MY bed, taking my pulse and bringing me juice and toast. Oh Lord, just let me disappear!! So after a reasonable "rest" I hopped back up and resumed caring for the REAL patient! (By the way, I attribute my fainting spell to exhaustion and worry, I am not usually that weak!!)
Over the next several hours, Landon continued to vomit on a regular basis. The nurses had provided him with a liquid diet of jello, soda, juice and popsicles; but, he just couldn't keep anything down. They gave him a suppository for nausea two different times, but they didn't really help. He was moved back to just ice chips so he could rest his stomach. At one point, while vomiting, he looked over at Mike and I and said "Why are you both wearing stripes?" I told you, he is the funniest little boy!!! (We were both wearing striped polos, but it wasn't planned!!) One cute thing that happened--the anesthesiologist (who I thought was the janitor when we walked in!! OOPS!) was a very nice "grandpa" type! When Landon woke up from surgery, he had a dollar bill taped to his foot! Such a cute idea and gave the patient something to be excited about!!!
He had a pretty slow recovery, I believe mostly due to the diarrhea that he had before the surgery combined with the vomiting (he vomited approximately 15 times that day, and again 2 or 3 times the next day). I am glad someone told me beforehand what his throat would look like for several days, or there may have been a repeat of my fainting!! It is extremely gross!! He was put on extremely soft foods for at least a week. Landon has NEVER liked ice cream, so we grew pretty weary of the well-meaning people congratulating him on a week full of ice cream!! I got tired of telling them he doesn't like ice cream, milkshakes, popsicles...so I started just nodding and smiling!! The first thing he asked for was a bologna sandwich!! And he couldn't wait to eat chicken mcnuggets!! He tried to eat a cheeseburger at one week post-op (recommended by the dr.) but he just couldn't do it!!
It has been a little over two weeks since his surgery and he is back to his normal self!! He is eating everything in sight, I'm sure catching up for those weeks he couldn't!! (I also am eating everything in sight...not sure why...moral support maybe?!?!) I am so proud of him, he was an excellent patient! Now hopefully he will never suffer with sore throats again (and would it be too much to hope that this will clear up his ear problem too?)
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It's been a while since I've posted, but this weekend is definitely worth mentioning! It was filled with lots of fun, tears and good memories!
Friday--Prom! Kayla and Miles were crowned king and queen of their high school prom last May. It was time to end their reign and crown the new king and queen. The day was spent trying to get ready in between feedings and naps (I had to babysit from 7:30am to 6:00pm--not a good day to have to work overtime but that's another story....) Kayla looked beautiful and Miles looked handsome! They held hands as they walked in to be introduced and they seemed so grown-up and carefree. I was so very proud of them, they are EXCEPTIONALLY good young adults!!
Saturday morning--I ran in my first ever 5K. This was a goal I set for myself in February. I have been walking and running mostly to lose weight, but I needed a little extra motivation. A 5K was advertised in our area that was sponsored by a church and was for a good cause, so I signed up. (Extra early so I wouldn't try to talk myself out of it!!) I had timed myself running twice (which is exactly how many times I ran the 3.1 miles before the race!!) The first time it took me 40 minutes and the second time, my time was around 38 minutes. Not that great, but I was happy with it!! The day of the race I was a bundle of nerves!! I hadn't felt good for about two days before, so I was not very optimistic on the outcome. My cousin Tara was part of the organizational committe and by far my biggest fan. She gave me lots of encouragement before and after the race. She kept saying "I know you'll win!"Hee Hee, I KNEW I wouldn't win, but the only goal I set for myself was to finish it! So when they said "Go!" (or whatever they said, I was too nervous!) I went with everyone else. It didn't take long to figure out that I needed to set my own pace or pass out on the side of the road. I got shaky, dizzy and felt like I was going to throw up! I thought to myself, "Just keep running on out that front gate. You can call someone later and come pick up the van. No one will ever know!!" So I stopped to walk to get myself calmed down. I walked for about 30-45 seconds which was just enough time to gather myself together. I finished the race with a respectable time of 34:44. The time wasn't so important (although I was personally THRILLED with my time), but that I'd finished it! A good friend of mine from high school, David, came and ran the last little bit with me. I know they probably do that for all the first-timers, but it meant alot to me!! Looking back, it was more fun than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be pure torture, but once I set my pace, I just enjoyed the scenery! I am sure most runners would faint dead away at the thought of not sprinting or measuring each mile, but I seriously just enjoyed myself!!
I was going to write about Agape too, but I think I'll save that for another post!! Have a great Memorial Day weekend!!
Landon turned 4 yesterday, January 8th! I can hardly believe it!! He is so sweet and smart and sometimes rotten! He has a great imagination and a great (sometimes too good) memory!! He loves cars and tractors, right now his obsession is Herbie the Love Bug!! We got a Wii for Christmas and he loves his Hot Wheels game and his Mater National game!! I thought I would take a minute and put down the wonderful story of Landon!!!
Mike and I had been married 5 years when we had our last daughter, Jenna. Kayla was 2 1/2 when Jenna was born and we were convinced we were done. We had "permanent sterilization" and our family was complete! We didn't spend any time regretting our decision; we were just busy raising the two beautiful daughters God had entrusted to us!
Fast forward about 9 1/2 years and one day I said to Mike, "We should've had another one!" I felt perfectly safe saying that because it was not possible!! He SHOCKED me by saying "Yeah we should have. I wish we would have." I was shocked because I always teased him by saying I had to talk him into having a second child! We didn't really discuss it any more at that time but the idea had taken root! We talked about adoption, but its so expensive and with two growing daughters, we just couldn't swing it. We started discussing the possibility of a sterilization reversal.
I called a dr. in St. Louis who does that type of surgery and it was 10,000 dollars!!! Ok so we definitely took that as a NO! But thanks to the internet I found a dr. in the Chicago area who does the surgery as a ministry an it was only 1700!! Quite a big difference, but still alot of money, as anyone raising a family knows!!! (And we were kinda wanting a pool....
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The VERY NEXT DAY, Mike called from work and said "you are not going to believe this, but we were just told we could opt out of a small retirement plan that we'd tried out and I have (drum roll) 1700 dollars in my account!!!" We had our YES!!
We called and made the appt., the surgery was performed Dec. 12 and we started the roller coaster ride!!!
In March, our church hosted a Red Cross blood drive. I was talking the nurse and telling her that although I didn't think I was pregnant, we had been trying and would that be a problem for me giving blood? We got to talking and I told her a little of our story. She said "Oh, my daughter and her husband had that surgery and she is now 6 months pregnant!" I didn't know that nurse or her daughter, but that gave me hope!! There were many times over the next couple of months that I remembered that story when I was down!!
The beginning of May we took our youth group to a weekend-long concert. On the way home, we passed a sign that said "It's a Boy! Landon Michael!"
I called Mike ( we were traveling together, just in separate cars) and said "Do you think that was a sign from God that I'm pregnant, we're going to have a boy and name him Landon Michael?" (A name we had ALREADY picked out if God should bless us with a son!!)
Turns out I WAS pregnant as I found out a few days later in the bathroom of Taco Bell in Sparta!! I bought a cheap pregnancy test (and when I say cheap, think plastic dish, rubber glove and test stick!!) It was POSITIVE!! I went and got in line to order and I was BAWLING!! The people were probably thinking give this crazy lady whatever she wants!!!
We found out on August 27, 2003 (our 15th anniversary!!!)that we were having a boy! The pregnancy was pretty uneventful I LOVED being pregnant! I never thought I would have another child so I TREASURED every minute (ok well the peeing my pants part I could've skipped...)
January 8th, 2004 I went into labor around 1 am. Turns out it was EARLY labor so that made for a long day! Over the course of the day, I got to know my nurse, Ellen. We started comparing notes ( we were the same age, both Christians, both had 3 kids-two girls one boy!) So I told her about our reversal surgery and she said "Oh my gosh! My husband and I did that too and our youngest daughter is 6 months old now!!!" I said "You just never know who God will put in your path to give you hope!" and I told her about the nurse from the Red Cross blood drive and how that kept my spirits up through the months of trying to have a baby. Ellen said "You are kidding! My mom is a nurse with the Red Cross! " So she ran out to the hall and called her mom and said "Do you remember talking to a girl in Pinckneyville who was trying to have a baby? Well she's in here now!!!!" It was just so amazing! I know people will say "Wow, small world" but I know it's more than that! God had his hand in it all!!!
So I know that was really long, but I love to tell our story because it reminds me of just how GOOD God is! I love Landon so much, we all do! And I want him to have the desires of his heart (as you would know if you could see the pile of birthday presents he got!!) So how much more God, who is our heavenly Father, wishes to give us above and beyond what we could think or imagine!?!?! Landon is a blessing to us and worth every penny we spent on the roller coaster ride to have him!! And guess what? We also got our pool....
My baby girl turned 16 last week! It's so hard to believe! It seems like she was just that little girl who used to say her name was Jenna Waye. We would ask"Jenna Waye?" and she would say "No! Jenna WAYE"!! It's actually Jenna Raye but she thought she was saying it right! 
She got her license a week ago and she's doing great. It was so sad that first day to see her drive off. It really is the beginning of when they don't need you anymore. Oh, I know, children always need their mother. And I am not putting myself out of a job just yet! But definitely after a child gets her license, she has more freedom and more ability to care for herself than ever before. Jenna no longer counts on me to be her chauffeur, and that is sad, because that's one of the titles I have held for, well, for all of her life.
So a little bit about Jenna. She is a cutie as you can see from the pictures. She has beautiful red hair, but she doesn't really have the complexion of a red haired person. She has a beautiful smile and when she laughs, tears run down her face because she really means it. But she's not all beauty and no brains. She is also very smart. Jenna always said she's not a reader. And yet, she has one of the highest grades in Accelerated Reading in all of PCHS. She also said she's not very smart. And yet, Jenna is number 8 out of 124 students in her grade. Jenna was also nominated to be on the WYSE team (Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering). Last week, Jenna was told by her math teacher that she recommends she takes College Level Math next year, one of only 3 in her class that received that recommendation. Pretty good huh? 
I though I would take this opportunity to brag Jenna up a little. Hope you don't mind. Her 16th birthday only comes once in her life and it's a little hard on this momma. Mike and I are extremely proud of her and we love her so much. Kayla and Landon do too!
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He had a pretty slow recovery, I believe mostly due to the diarrhea that he had before the surgery combined with the vomiting (he vomited approximately 15 times that day, and again 2 or 3 times the next day). I am glad someone told me beforehand what his throat would look like for several days, or there may have been a repeat of my fainting!! It is extremely gross!! He was put on extremely soft foods for at least a week. Landon has NEVER liked ice cream, so we grew pretty weary of the well-meaning people congratulating him on a week full of ice cream!! I got tired of telling them he doesn't like ice cream, milkshakes, popsicles...so I started just nodding and smiling!! The first thing he asked for was a bologna sandwich!! And he couldn't wait to eat chicken mcnuggets!! He tried to eat a cheeseburger at one week post-op (recommended by the dr.) but he just couldn't do it!!
