The Verdict Is In...

Well, as fast as she is growing... here's hoping the flap on her left ureter does the same.

Turns out Reese does indeed have stage 3 reflux that affects her left kidney. (The right one is working just fine.) My niece actually had the same thing only it affected both of her kidneys, and she outgrew it in less than a year. No problems to worry about so far, and she'll be on antibiotics until she either outgrows it or has it fixed surgically. Pumping antibiotics down her throat daily for the next year or so goes against everything I stand for when it comes to how we eat and live... so here's to going against my grain. Thanks for everyone who's checked on her and prayed for her today. The test went "smoothly" with no fighting, though lots of screaming and over ten minutes of trying to calm her down after the test were involved. I wasn't the one laying on the table and I know my nerves were shot when it was all said and done.

So now I'm looking for ways to "count it all joy..." and I decided to thank God for the technology and medicine to find these things so my baby doesn't suffer kidney failure at some point in her life! Good thing to be thankful for, huh?!?

Clever Title Currently Unavailable...

I can honestly say I can no longer keep up with the rate at which this girl is growing and learning. Every. single. day. she hits me with something new. A new word, a new dance, a new nap schedule... :) Tomorrow marks 17 months since this child made her way into our world and I can't remember what life was like before her. Today while I was in the bathroom getting ready, she was in my room watching tv. She toddled into the bathroom and we had the following conversation...

Reese: "Mama- I tigger. I tigger poop."

Mama: "No Reese cup, not poop. Say 'Pooh'"

Reese: "poop"

Oh well... I tried, right? :)

Now I know that not everyone shares my love of musicals and what not, and while several people have told me they feel Pierce Brosnon ruined his career when he did Mamma Mia, I strongly disagree. I fear I've gone a little overboard with it however, since receiving the DVD for Christmas...

This is not the only song she asks for. Random requests for 'Honey' and 'Money' have been coming up as well. Needless to say Mamma Mia has been put away in exchange for PraiseBaby and other CD's to ensure my little sponge is soaking up things other than, well anyway...

So here in a few short minutes we'll be taking the Reese Cup to Vandy for something called a VCUG... (google it if you'd like) We're trying to find out if her urine is refluxing back into her kidneys, and I'm worried the process may be a little frightening for her to say the least. The majority of the time children outgrow it if this is indeed the case, but your prayers would be appreciated for her over the next couple of hours! I'll try to update this when I get home if we find anything out immediately...

Fun With Ooblick

Does anyone else remember playing with this stuff as a kid? I'd forgotten all about it, but leave it to my supermom sister to introduce it into my own girls playtime.





How much fun are they having?!? And how cool is my sister to not care that it's being strewed floor to ceiling in her dining room? Way to go Danielle... you're a better mom than I would've been about it! lol

Wordless Wednesday

Planning Ahead

When it's our turn to celebrate an anniversary of any sort... I hope that someone will take the liberty of plastering this lots of places. A little behind the scenes of what really goes on during an M-trip w/ Reagan.

Now you all are gonna be fighting over who gets to sign up first for the October trip, aren't you?

hehehe... Love ya baby.

A Sad Day

Seems like we've been on the go non-stop since the weekend before Christmas... probably because we have. :) But hopefully things are fixin' to slow down for a while. I'm back at my parents to retrieve my daughter who spent last weekend with them while Reagan and I went to the STS Conference with our students... (which is a whole post in itself... somehow being left at Mia and Papaw's while Mama is away always brings out more teeth... seriously- it's happened 3 times in a row now! And teeth always mean fever and vomiting and a puny Reese cup. My poor mom- Reese is gonna grow up thinking "My Mia always took such good care of me when I was sick... but where was my Mama?" lol) Hopefully after we get home tomorrow we won't have to leave again for a while.

This will go down in the book as a very sad day during time spent at home however... please let me introduce you to the family dog, Brutus.

(Here he is modeling Dad's glasses for us... he he)

Named for "Brutus the Buckeye", this dog was a brilliant, sweet, cuddly, loveable black labrador.
Sadly I use the word was, because this sweet pup was hit on the road today and taken from us suddenly. I'm not a dog fan, y'all, but I cried when the sweet gentleman who hit him knocked on the door to tell us what had happened... just minutes before he was let out he was resting his head on my lap wooing me to pet him with his big dark eyes. I hurt more for my dad and sister... I'd say they loved him the most.



So here's a little tribute to Brutus, taken last week... a little trick he did where we put a treat on his nose and he'd sit there for as long as it took until we told him to fetch it up... watch your fingers at that point though! :)

We miss you already boy.

It's Always Something...

Blogs are lacking... I've been home for three days and have been dilligently getting back into the swing of piano on top of trying to rearrange my entire house to hold all of the stuff we got from three Christmases. (I'll still probably be at it through the weekend...)

A little hiccup in our week that I'd like to inform you all about and ask you to pray for. Last week in Oklahoma Reese began showing signs of what I thought could be a UTI. Turns out I was right... and my doctor said it's actually a pretty bad one which is uncommon in children her age. (I did get her to sit on the potty though and saved her a cath- yea for Reese!) :) After her antibiotics clear it up, we'll be going through a couple of tests to be sure everything is working right in there. (The "reflux" issue that they're checking for is actually something my niece had and outgrew after a year or two...) She's not feverish or lethargic... still running around and playing and acting completely normal! Praise God for that! Please just pray for her little body as we await the testing and then the results... I know God isn't suprised by this and we can trust him!