Consider yourselves warned.

Jamie gave me my Christmas/ birthday present today. It's a new camera. So, I've been taking a few pictures.

And I am so happy!!!! I even caught this beyond adorable moment....

So... consider yourselves warned. Many more pictures to come!!!!!

Around 3:45 today, Faith jumped out of her chair, grabbed her chest and said "That hurts!". Trying not to panic, I assessed the situation. She wasn't discolored. She wasn't faint. Her heart wasn't racing. She was breathing. Check, check and check. So we sat for a few minutes until the "pain" passed. Within a few minutes she was back to her normal self and bouncing around like nothing had happened.
After a call to her cardiologist, her and I set off for the hospital to have her checked out. All is well. We'll have to follow up with her cardiologist tomorrow and determine what the deal is. Most likely its Premature Atrial Contractions. We've had issues with these before.

It's moments like this that suddenly smack me in the face with a loud reminder that I'm the mother of a child with heart disease. I don't understand why God chose her to have this heart. But I thank God that he chose me to be her mother. She is such an amazing little girl. Her strength and fearless attitude is so inspiring.

With the doctor in the room and her resting on my lap, she farted. It wasn't just a littly girly passing gas. It was a fart. And it was gross. And she laughed her butt off. And we all smelled it for quite some time after the butt explosion was over. Which made her giggle even more. And then I was reminded that even though she has this heart with issues, she's a four year old little girl. Thank God she's ours. Smell and all.

It's been a week...

Overbooked myself several days this week, had too much laundry and too little time and long nights with a baby that is over babied by her momma.
I was nearly in tears this evening praying for nighttime so all the kids could go to bed. And then I saw this....

Now I'm sitting on the couch crying because this sweet baby girl will be 10 months old when we wake up tomorrow. And these times are going to become fewer and fewer and before I know it, I won't have a baby at all anymore. And the other two that I was considering selling on Craigslist, will no longer be small either. And one day, it will be completely silent. And I won't have all of their activities to keep my booked or over booked during the days. And I won't have anyone waking me during the night.
That's when I'll rest.
For now, I'll just enjoy the noise and chaos.

Veterans Day and fleece blankets

A lot has happened this past week. I'll just do a quick synopsis on the two best things. The first best thing was Veterans Day.
There was an assembly at Caleb's school that was just super cool. One of the greatest things about this assembly is that Caleb tried out and got a spot in the band for the assembly! This was after only two months of having the trumpet. To be honest, I really didn't think he would get it. The kid does not practice. But he's still pretty darn good. Wish I could say he gets that from me.
Not only to Caleb get to play "My Country Tis of Thee" with the other selected 5th graders, but he also got to assist with the opening and closing flag ceremonies with the VFW members in attendance. It was really great. At some point, I will figure out how to post a video on here and then you can see for yourself! For now, just use your imagination and trust me, it was cool.
It was really great how all the Veteran guests got to sit up front, facing the wide eyed children in the audience. And each Veteran was introduced by the person they were in attendance with. It was super cute to see these small children introduce their grandparent, parent, sibling, cousin or family friend with such pride.
I saw Caleb squat down next to Jamie and wasn't sure what was going on at first. Then I realize he was preparing to introduce his father. I imediately got a knot in my throat.
Then Caleb stood, dug deep into his pocket and retrieved a piece of paper. The entire gym, full of 500+ students and also parents, faculty and staff became completely silent.
I felt the tears welling into my eyes and was afraid what he was going to read and afraid that I was going to bawl.
He unfolded the paper, made eye contact with the crowd and began to read.  "My name is Caleb Schmittendorf and I would like to introduce my father, Jamie Schmittendorf."

Seriously.

That kid. He sure makes me proud. I love him so much it makes me ache.

The other most awesome thing that happened this week was a confirmation of something I already knew. For over 10 years now I have been a part of MOMS Club. MOMS is a national organization that pretty much saved my life when Caleb was a baby and we first moved to California. I have made some really great friends through this organization!
Well, the Shawnee group that I've been with for 4 years now did a service project for CHD Families. CHD Familes is the heart group we belong to and have grown to love over the past few years of having our heart miracle. This group of stay at home moms got together and donated 16 blankets, a huge bag of toiletries and money to the CHD group. This will enable CHD to provide care packages to so many families admitted to Children's Mercy for heart procedures. CHD provides so much support to so many familes and relies soley on donations like this for their organization to survive. They are such a great group and MOMS Club is such a great group too. I'm so proud to be part of groups that do such great things for so many people. I wish I could do more personally, but helping these groups do what they do is just a small step in the right direction.

Aside from these two really awesome things, here are some other things we've been doing:
We completed the diaper study with some horribly nasty diapers being delivered to the research facility, but made $125!
Dealt with Ashley randomly puking throughout the week (still a bit on edge with this one~ not a fun new trick!)
Attended three birthday parties, rearranged the living room furniture to make room for Christmas decorations, hung the Christmas lights on the house, made a new Bierock casserole recipe that was fantastic, learned that peanut butter cookies with spit in them really do taste good, learned that Faith wants to name her firstborn son "Junior" and her seventh son "Sasha", discovered that Ashley can stand unassisted for quite some time and even take a step or two from the coffee table to the couch, visited and loved another Boy Scout troup, decided to have Thanksgiving at our house this year, watched Caleb pull out two more teeth and hope he has enough teeth to eat Thanksgiving dinner.
I know there is much more but that is about all I can remember. Hopefully videos and pictures will be on soon.

Finished Tiara

The finished tiara Jamie made for Faith. We are off to paint it. She wants it yellow. Love my girl!

Fall days and art nights!

Caleb has "Hat Day" coming up at school. He said he wants to wear a Spartan hat. So... his father made him one. That's right. My husband who is an amazing hands on father figured out how to make a paper-mache Spartan hat.

-

It's not 100% completed but how cool is that!?!?

Of course, he can't leave Faith out. So he is making her a Tiara.

I'll put a new picture on when that is all done. It's on the back porch drying now.

Since Dad was getting messy, I thought we all should. So we had art night!

Faith was very excited to make more pictures for her Mimi. Every chance she gets, she wants to make something for Mimi.  (you'll be getting more mail soon, Bonnie!)

Before our art night got underway, Caleb and Faith were playing. Not sure what they were playing but they were using their imaginations so I'm happy. Faith got dressed up like Cleopatra.

And Caleb dressed up as... well, we don't know what he was dressed up as. A really odd 10 year old, I think.

Faith wouldn't even stand in the same picture as him. I think Buster was a little bothered too. Yes, he is wearing a foot brace and an arm brace. No, there is nothing wrong with him.
Well, he has not broken or sprained appendages.

Aside from letting our creative sides show through, we also played outside on this amazing gorgeous fall day. Ashley loves to be outside. I almost wish she would hurry up and learn to walk so that she would stop ruining all of her clothes crawling everywhere. Did I just wish my baby to grow up quicker? Ugh.

  

It was a good weekend. These nice weathered weekends are going to be far and few between. We enjoy them so much right now but will be excited for our first snowfall. Can't wait to take all the kids sledding! But right now, I have a really big mess to clean up.

I sat here for five minutes trying to think of a title. I've got nothing. My brain is complete mush after the day I've had.
I'll start with the beginning. I'm in the middle of doing a diaper study with Ashley. All this means is that a company provides me with diapers, bags and forms. I use their diapers, put them in the said bags and complete the forms. I return the used diapers 4 different times during this study. The study lasts a total of 16 days. At the end of the study, I make $145. Awesome.
I normally cloth diaper, but sure, you can pay me to use your diapers. I'm okay with that.

Anyway... I had to return some diapers today. In typical Murphy's Law fashion, after I had dropped the diapers, Ashley had a complete blow out. This blow out left me gasping for air and considering throwing everything touching her in the garbage. However, I needed that diaper. I sat in this parking lot for about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do. All the while, Faith had her head hanging out the back window gagging.

It finally came to me. I had two airline barf bags in my glove box. (LOVE having a sister in law who works for Delta!) So I passed Faith one of the bags and told her that if she was going to throw up, get it into that bag. And I set to work with the diaper.
I don't know how much money the people who have to deal with the diapers make, but it isn't enough. I however, earned my $145 with this one diaper change.
Once all was cleaned up, the dirty diaper went into the barf bag and into my glove box. That's right. We drove home with this horrendous diaper that really should have earned its own spot at the county landfill, in the glove box. My insurance papers will never be the same.

With this experience behind us, I moved on with the day. On the agenda for this afternoon was a trip to the doctors for Caleb. He's been having some pain in an area that I know absolutely nothing about, his testicles. Now this is an entire post in itself but I will say that all is fine and he's okay. We'll leave it at that for now. But before we reached this conclusion, we had to see the pediatrician who ordered an ultrasound on his goods. Off to the hospital we went. Luckily, Faith was with a friend. This was an experience that I do believe would have started her much needed therapy years earlier than planned.

Back tracking just a bit....
When Faith has her echocardiograms on her heart, they do all sorts of things to keep her attention focused on the task of being still. One of the "tricks" is they always promise her that she can fingerpaint in the gel on her chest when they are done with the test.

Back to today. Caleb was laying on this table, pants off and towel laying over what is supposed to be a sacred area. This incredibly sweet, older woman was doing everything in her power to make him comfortable and not scared. She was amazing. She lathered him up really good with the gel and then he says.....
 "When you're all done, can I finger paint?"
I was all out of energy to explain about my middle child with heart disease, echos and all the above. I just kind of stood there and she looked utterly confused and horrified. She simply answered with "Probably not." and then moved on to other issues at hand.
Lovely.

The best news from today came after hours and hours of smelling this awful smell, making the kids check their shoes, checking the van and even looking at the van tires only to realize that the smell was me. I had poop on my knee. Most likely elsewhere too. 

Best. Day. Ever.

Wine time.

Halloween

This is a picture of our Halloween 2007.

Caleb was 6, Faith was 6 months.

This is Halloween 2011.

Caleb is 10 1/2, Faith 4 1/2 and Ashley 9 months.

Things sure have changed!

The biggest change (aside from the third kid!) is that my baby didn't want to go trick or treating with his momma. Our boy hit the roads with 6 buddies and pillowcases ready to fill with candy. I was pushing my sweet little bumble bee and walking beside my Princess Witch but I kept thinking about my baby boy out on the streets without me. And I kept thinking about his second Halloween. He was 2 1/2 years old and totally into Superheros. He wore a Superman costume for months. Months! We couldn't leave home without his cape.
Now my baby is big enough to be running door to door dressed in his exectioner costume with his buds.

Yes. I did feel a bit teary. Luckily, it was dark so noone seemed to notice. It felt like an end of an era. And while I will have the girls by my side for several more years, Caleb was my first Halloween trick or treater. He was the beginning of it all and its so hard to just step back and let him grow up. I really wish I could find that pause button on his life. Did I mention that this 10 year old is now 5'3? Geez. No chance of him fitting into that Superman costume today.



On another note....
When I was looking at the old Halloween picture, I found this.

And this...

These are some old pictures of Faith. I think its safe to say Ashley will look just like her sister when she is older!

So, now its November. We spent the first day of November at the zoo. Gorgeous and perfect day for our last zoo outing of the year. It was 77 today. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow night. Hello Winter.

Time to start taking down the Halloween decorations. Glad we made it through and happy my big boy has entered a new phase of his life. And I'm glad I survived as well. This parenting stuff is especially hard when you need to learn how and when to let go.