Archive - August, 2009

A Little Bit of Heaven

August 31, 2009 in Lana's Journal with 7 Comments

Despite Carmen getting so very sick while at NY Grandparents’ house, we always enjoy visiting this lovely part of the country. It is the exact opposite of our suburbia life: quiet, serene, beautiful.
Before Dave’s Irish grandma passed away, she used to always quote “A Little Bit of Heaven…” that went something like this:

A little bit of heaven fell
From out the sky one day;
And nestled on the ocean
In a spot so far away.
And when the angels saw it
It looked so peaceful there;
They called it Ireland.

And then Grandma would explain that Ireland is not so peaceful after all.

I think that upstate New York is also a little bit of Heaven!

Lauren driving her cousin Kasey around on the John Deere.

NY, Lauren and Cousin Kasey on the John Deere

The view from NY Grandparents’ front window. Gorgeous!

View From NY Grandparents' Front Porch

All Grown Up

August 31, 2009 in Lana's Journal with 15 Comments

Today was Lauren’s first day of kindergarten. She was ready to go 15 minutes early. She was excited to take her new lunch bag with a thermos of macaroni and cheese, a container of strawberries and grapes, a granola bar, and her water canteen.

Dave, Lauren, Carmen and I walked to the bus stop. Lauren waited in line with her good friend Maya, also a new kindergartner.

The bus pulled up and Lauren hopped on. She turned around and blew me a kiss. It was all over so fast. My little girl is all grown up.

I can’t wait to hear about her first day of school!

P.S. I cried.

First Day of Kindergarten

The Carmen Contest

August 28, 2009 in Lana's Journal with 10 Comments

When we get home we’ll blog about our exciting adventures on Carmen’s Make-A-Wish trip. In the meantime, here’s something for you to start thinking about and working on.

Want to win something fun??? You have until the end of September 2009 to email Dave pictures with Carmen’s name on them. Be as creative as you want to be: Carmen’s name written in sand, a Carmen tattoo on someone’s arm, a Carmen sign, you holding a paper with Carmen’s name written on it, etc. Dave will put together a video slide show with all of the entries and we will pick our favorite as the winner.

We’re still working on a prize but I promise you that it will be good. And since I’m in charge of this contest, you will actually receive your prize (ahem…no offense intended at Dave)! We have several thoughts already but feel free to suggest prizes in the comments section.

As Dave and I were discussing this contest, Lauren disappeared into the other room. She returned a short while later and announced that she had made a sign. Perfect!

Lauren with her Carmen sign

Here is another example. When we visited the Butterfly Garden for Carmen’s birthday, we saw this sign along the path.

Carmen Sign

Now for the fine print. In order for your photos to work with video, they must be at least 720 by 540 pixels. Ideally, they would be around 2500 by 1500 pixels or more. Don’t compress the pictures unless you absolutely have to. The bigger the pictures the better, 10 MB or less via email; unlimited size via FTP (if you know how to use ftp and would like to use this option, send an email to Dave and he will tell you what to do). Edit and crop the photos as you’d like but leave more room than you would normally so Dave has room to make them work in the video.

If you don’t know what any of the above means…that’s OK. Just send your pictures and Dave and I will take care of the rest!

Ready?

Go!

A2B, Where Will We Be?

August 26, 2009 in Dave's Musings with 41 Comments

We are at Point A. Something else is at Point B.

A2B, Where Will We Be?

You each get one guess. What’s at Point B?

A Bit Better

August 25, 2009 in Lana's Journal with 6 Comments

Carmen gave us quite a scare Friday night. Dave and I went to bed at 11:30pm. At 12:30, I woke up. Carmen was breathing very hard and fast and sounded awful. We gave her extra Xoponex nebulizer treatments, suctioned her, changed her position, took her temperature, etc. but nothing helped. We gave her Morphine, hoping that might calm her. Carmen was asleep during all of this and her heart rate was in the 160s and respiratory rate in the 70s. She sounded as if every breath was taking effort. We called Hospice but since we were on vacation in New York, they could not help us. (We had driven up to New York Thursday to spend a few days and then planned to continue on to Carmen’s Make-A-Wish trip to Cape Cod.)

So, then we sat there wondering what to do. Take her to the ER? That is always tricky and even more so in a small town in upstate New York. We didn’t want her to have an IV. At 3am, I couldn’t take it anymore so went and took a shower. When I got back to bed, nothing had changed. It was a long night. At 5am, I took Carmen’s temperature again and she had shot up to 101.  We gave her Ibuprofen and a dose of Zithromax that we had filled previously in case of emergency.

Saturday morning we called her pediatrican (thank goodness for Saturday office hours!) and the doctor immediately called in Cipro, Zithromax and extra Xoponex and Pulmicort. Most likely Carmen has pneumonia.

As of today, Carmen is doing better. Still congested and breathing hard but she doesn’t sound as if she might stop breathing at any second.  That sends me over the edge to hear gasping, labored breathing. I can handle seizures. I can handle chronic diarrhea. I cannot handle hearing Carmen struggle for every breath. Thank you, God, Carmen is doing better! 

We arrived in Cape Cod last night and we hope Carmen has a wonderful Make-A-Wish trip. Carmen’s night nurse was waiting for us when we arrived. (hooray!). We will take lots of pictures and share our trip with you when we get home.

Thank you for your continued prayers for Carmen.

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