From the Hospital....

Isn't this cool that I can write this while sitting on the hospital bed with Katelyn right next to me. Children's hospital is definitely high tech. We are going to be staying overnight in room 5E-08. You can send her an email from the website www.archildrens.org. They did the scope and everything was normal. We are staying overnight for the ph probe so see how often she refluxes and then they will do an upper gi in the morning. Will write more information about this all at that point.

Happy Dirt-day Old fart!!!

We had a great time this weekend! It was nice to relax after such a hard week last week. Saturday I did have to work at the bank in the morning but then we went to the Gentry Safari afterwards with Marlaina, Brittney O., Lee Beth and her mom and little girl Finley, and Brittany T. and Denver (these are all people connected to the bank one way or another). It was a lot of fun. We took a picnic lunch and then walked around to see all the animals. Afterwards we did the drive-thru safari. This was a lot of fun with just us girls and there were a lot more animals than when Justin went with me and Katelyn a couple of months ago.

Sunday was the most relaxing because we didn't do anything all day except go to Sam's and visit Justin's mom and dad. She made a roast and we ate lunch about 1:30 or 2. It was delicious and late enough that I didn't have to cook dinner last night which is always a treat.

Tomorrow is Justin's birthday. I feel safe in saying (because he doesn't read this blog) that I am really disappointed that the portable dvd player I ordered from ebay for his birthday isn't here yet! I don't know what I am going to do tomorrow if it doesn't show up! We certainly don't have the money for me to go buy him another gift. I guess I will print a picture off of ebay and stick it in a card. I am sure he will understand. So if you talk to him wish him happy dirt-day! That's what Katelyn calls it and he also taught her to tell him he's an old fart. All that gray hair makes him feel old I think! Boy am I lucky so far... :)

Long week yet again...

Well this has been a long week again so sorry that it has been since Saturday that I last updated. Katelyn's ear tubes have fallen out and she has fluid built up in one of the ears already. We have been to a family doctor and an ear, nose and throat doctor this week. After taking off early two days this week the doctor finally decided that they should give her some medicine. She is on an additional antibiotic to try to kick this before the tests are run next week.

Yesterday I went to Springfield, MO with another co-worker, Beverly for a Security Conference. This wasn't really much of a conference but a chance for them to do an extended sales pitch. They did have some neat ideas but I was ready to come home. Once we were back to Fayetteville my brakes pretty much went out. That horrible metal on metal sound is never pleasant. Luckily Justin's dad could loan us the money to get these done until he gets paid tomorrow. Seems like it is one thing after another.

Two good things going for me today: 1) This beautiful weather regardless of the rain is so nice! 2) I was able to eat lunch at JD China today for $0.74 because we had accumulated enough customer appreciation coupons for a free lunch special! I was so excited and it really hit the spot after eating at home and work all week for dinner and lunch.

Posting will be a little sporadic the next two weeks as we go to Children's next and then to Florida the week after next. However, Katelyn and I are planning a trip to the Gentry Zoo with some girls from work so I will try to post some pictures from that this weekend. TGTF! Thank Goodness Tomorrow is Friday!

Fugitives Captured & Present Screams....

Thursday was jail day for Muscular Dystrophy.

Friday we received a gift from my Aunt Karen in Tennessee. She sells Tupperware and the gift was a wonderful snack set of Disney's Cars. Katelyn, as many of you know, wants to watch Cars every day. Justin and I have been searching for a replacement Disney movie that she will enjoy as much as Cars with no avail. We seriously need a break from cars. The closest thing so far has been Ninja Turtles which I think is horrible because it is all fighting. But I guess for now it's a break none the less. Same goes with presents as it was for her birthday. She squeals with delight at pulling out the tissue paper! It was much fun. Here are a few pictures.

Beautiful Blooms

Today was a good day for us. We grilled hamburgers and played outside for awhile. Katelyn had not been able to use the wonderful swing set that Justin's nana and papa bought for her last year because of her runny nose and illnesses. This year we hope to get lots of hours of fun out of it. She already asks about it when we go home every day. She also likes to ride her Dora bike that she got for her birthday.

Today Brittany and I both reached our goals for MDA. We also both went over. The last totals today were $1,722.50 for each of us. This is amazing! Thank you to everyone that donated!

The trees around town are starting to slowly turn from blooms to leaves. This was one of the last of the trees in our yard to bloom. Isn't it beautiful?

Starvin' Marvin'

Katelyn has moved on to a rebellious stage of not eating. I don't know if it is a rebellion against her new diet or if it is because she doesn't feel well. This weekend she didn't each much more than a dozen donut holes and a hot dog and that was all on Saturday. Today she did a little better because I made her take some bites of tortellini. She thinks it is ravioli and she likes them she is just refusing to eat anything. I am still trying to get her to eat dried fruits. Today she tried raisins again and tried a dried apricot for the first time. She licked it a bunch but never would take a bite of it.

We saw her PCP today. He thinks that she does have allergies that do not show on the testing for whatever reason. He gave us some samples of allegra to try since she is old enough to try some different allergy medicines now. Hopefully this will dry her up without a new antibiotic but he did prescribe one for later in the week if this doesn't get any better.

Isn't it hard to believe that it was spitting snow flurries yesterday and we are going to the beach in two weeks? I hope it gets much warmer between now and then!

Hurtin' Turkeys

Justin left to go to the cabin in Pettigrew for the weekend and left Katelyn and me for a girl's weekend. I had to work at the bank yesterday morning and then worked for Dale for about an hour and half. The rest of the time we have been watching chick flicks and we made a short visit to Margret yesterday evening. Everyone we have seeen will ask Katelyn where Justin is. She always says he's hurtin' turkeys. Unfortunately for him, he hasn't even seen a turkey yet. That's okay with me because he would expect me to cook it somehow if he got one and I have no idea how to fix a wild turkey.

She is having trouble breathing this weekend and possibly has another infection (her drainage is lime green). So we are just hanging out and trying to rest so that she is hopefully doing better really soon. I look forward to Justin coming home for a break from the devil medicine.

Withdrawals....

Katelyn disappeared last night for a little while and when I found her she had stolen an Oreo from the pantry and gotten it everywhere! Oreo's are one of the things she is not supposed to eat. So I guess she is having either cookie or chocolate withdrawals or knowing her maybe both.

An Occupational Therapist is giong to see her a week from tomorrow to evaluate her for sensory issues and to see if she needs any occupational therapies. This will be interesting as well.

I'm still behind on my Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. Brittany and I were able to sell $147 worth of raffle tickets today at the Washington County Court House. This put us both right around $1,100 each. We are still about $500 away from the bail set by MDA. We must raise this money before next Thursday. Please click the link above if you wish to donate. They will bill you later if you that's what you desire to do. Thanks for everyone's help!

Really Long Day

Kim and I left early this morning and headed to Little Rock in the rain. It was raining cats and dogs all the way past Ozark. It really delayed us on getting there by 10:30 but I made up some time time from Russelville on. We did get a little lost once we were in Little Rock because the building was not clearly marked at the road. Anyway, the doctor's office was not clean at all and we had to wait from 10:20 until 1:00 to actually see the doctor. We were not impressed at this point but I really liked Dr. VanLanthem. She was very nice and took the time to explain her concerns, the procedures that she wanted to perform, and the possible side effects of the procedures. So here's the lowdown of what she plans to do on April 30th: 1) She wants to perform a esophageal scope to look for any ulcers or scaring from Reflux 2) She wants to do an Upper GI to make sure that all of Katelyn's anatomy is correct and that there aren't any underlying problems down there since this has never been looked at 3) She wants to do a small biopsy of the major areas from the upper GI and scope to allergy test. She says that some foods will not show an allergic reaction on the blood work but will when in contact with these tissues (This may explain her shell fish reactions!) 4) Last but not least she wants to monitor her overnight with a PH balancing test that will record every reflux, how long it lasts, and how acidic it is. She seems to think that this could really be a big part of Katelyn's problem. She says that Dr. Bower (Katelyn's ENT) sends her a lot of patients like this that don't have clear cut signs of aspiration on the swallow study and this can sometimes be a part of their problem. So we are all very hopeful that something will come of this.

We ate lunch in Conway at Cracker Barrel. This was the first time I have seen Katelyn actually eat a hamburger. She didn't eat much today because I didn't have any snacks she could eat with the new restriction so she was really hungry. I think she would have eaten just about anything! She made sure to tell the waitress that she needed cheese though. She probably would have thrown a fit without the cheese. She told her at least five times that I remember. After we ate we hurried back to town because I had class tonight. I just got in and wanted to update so everyone would know what was going on. Will write more later. I'm too exhausted to think of anything else tonight.

Back Again...

Well we are back to Little Rock again tomorrow. It is becoming like our second home. When I called Katelyn's doctor to get a referral to the GI doctor they called back in less than an hour and asked us to be there tomorrow at 10:30. This is not a doctor at Children's but a private practice. The ENT had recommended them so that was nice. Unfortunately Justin is not able to go with us tomorrow so his mom is going instead. It is nice that she is able to do that because that would be an especially long trip with Katelyn alone. The list of meltable solids is a little longer and less manageable than I had originally expected. I'm not sure what Katelyn is going to eat for breakfast because she can eat no cereal or thawed out frozen pancakes or waffles. She doesn't like pop tarts and the teacher said she isn't eating her nuffins anymore. I made a smoothie this morning but she didn't drink it because it was still sitting there when I went to pick her up this afternoon. I guess we will figure something out with a few trial and errors.

Modified Diet and more...

Sorry it took so long for me to update you on our Children's visit on Friday. We were detained by some by the tornado that went through there Thursday night. Traffic was horrible (almost at a standy still) all the way from Conway to Little Rock and we were worried that we wouldn't make it on time. Surprisngly as soon as we checked in she was called back. The swallow study took less than 45 minutes. I guess it helps that she actually cooperated this time thanks to Ms. Amy and Ms. Paige's quick thinking and months of preparation. They took pictures of Ms. Amy in the swallow study chair drinking her drinks and getting her "big girl" pictures made with the BIG camera. Katelyn was definitely more prepared this time than last. Unfortunately, there was still very deep penetration with her thin liquids. And medium penetration with meltable solids. They didn't see her aspirate but they aren't convinced that she doesn't. Given her history it is failry obvious that she does. So we must modify her diet even more. We are supposed to avoid the staples of toddler-hood. No more cheese puffs, crackers, vanilla wafers, or any thing that when chewed a couple of times is more of a liquid substance than a solid. We are also supposed to give her dried fruits instead of fresh fruit when possible because of the liquid content in this type of food. They say this is a minor change to her diet but for those of you that know how picky Katelyn is will appreciate how concerned with are with finding her things to eat. They say that pasta and meat are great foods for her. Good thing she loves mac and cheese and chicken!

Yesterday we went Devil's Den and went four-wheeling. Katelyn loves "bicycle" riding! We asked her if she wanted to go yesterday morning and of course she did but when Justin went outside to load up she thought he left her here and she threw the biggest fit. It was kind of cute! I packed us a picnic lunch and we headed off about 10:00. We rode about 5 mph on a three mile trail stopping a little over half way to eat. When we got to the end of the trail none of us were ready to go so we turned around and headed back. We found a pretty waterfall to stop and look at but the turn around was a little too much for Katelyn's first time out. She was trying to stand up and sitting in all kinds of strange positions before we made it back to the truck. It was weird to us that we didn't see anyone else the whole time we were out. And the only deer we saw were on the sides of the roads coming and going.

We also ventured to Rogers yesterday to Gordman's grand opening. I have to say that for a grand opening there weren't any special deals. I did get a pair of shorts and a tank top for the beach in 3 weeks! It's hard to imagine it being warm enough for the beach since it is 50 degrees as I write this. But my mom assures me that it normally is.

Slow News Day

Today is a slow news day per say. There just isn't much to report but I am enjoying venting through this blog a little. I worked really late today. Greenland Schools was having a Math night so Kevin, Brittany, and I went to help make hamburgers and hot dogs for all the families that showed up. It's nice to help out in the community a bit but after school Tuesday and working for Dale yesterday made for a long day/week. Today was sort of like Friday for me because I don't go to work tomorrow. I don't know if a day at Children's is considered a fun day but the tension at the bank lately makes me wonder if a day at Children's is better than being at the bank?

I've been contemplating more and more what I want to do after graduation. I really enjoy banking but it seems like there should be more to this profession....

Okay...so on to an update on Katelyn's ever growing vocabulary. We went to McDonald's for dinner because I worked so late and then Katelyn only wanted chicken for dinner. In the happy meals right now come these different pieces of jewelry or accessories related to the Disney princess characters. The one she got tonight was a Belle necklace and when you open it up it has some solid perfume. Katelyn opened it up and said, "this smells like dog poops!" At least she doesn't know that crap is the same thing. The other really funny thing that she must have learned from Justin is to call people a dufus. Justin calls people this in the midst of road rage and now so does Katelyn. It may not be nice but it sure is funny to hear her say!

Goodnight and I will update you all on her trip to Children's tomorrow when we get home.

34 classes to go!

Tonight was the final for my Financial Mathematics class. There are only 34 more classes until we graduated. I am looking forward to the end! The next class is Accounting. It should be interesting since it is about Financial statements and stuff like that that.

Today was April Fool's...I was never able to come up with anything to get anyone. I never did really understand what the point of April Fools was. My friend Brittany pulled a good one on Kevin today. She told him that Mr. Lion needed him to call him about some land for sale in Eureka Springs. She gave him the Tulsa Zoos phone number and he called them! Can you imagine calling the zoo and asking for Mr. Lion? Brittany said that the zoos ask for donations on April Fools because they get so many calls like this. I thought it was really funny!

I have been trying to teach Katelyn her name. She has known for awhile that her name is tatelyn as she says but I want her to know her full name in case she ever got lost. So each day in the car on the way home from school we talk about her full name. Today I told her that Justin's name is Justin Ledbetter and that my name is Tarah Ledbetter and her name is Katelyn Ledbetter. She sounded like she knew what I was talking about so I dropped it for the day. Justin called and said that she is now calling him Daddy Ledbetter and me Mommy Ledbetter! She is so smart!

Well Justin just called and said he is on his way home from his mom and dad's. Her car still isn't working. I hope that this get fixed soon. I know what it is like to not have a vehicle. I guess I better go prepare for Daddy Ledbetter and baby Ledbetter! Sweet dreams!!!