Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Hershey...no snow...yay...but it's coming right now. The kids had school Thursday and swim practice so our vacation started Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve consisted of laundry, cleaning and then baking cut-outs and frosting them. This was Keegan's first time making cut-outs and he loved every second of it. The kids took showers and put their jammies on and we went to look at Christmas lights. We went to a house that has their lights set to music on a specific fm channel that they program. The lights go with the music and it was great. They do this for a St. Jude's fundraiser. There are 5 families that do this in our surrounding area but this house was closest to us in Harrisburg.

Santa arrived at our house even though Carey and Keegan were on the naughty list (portable north pole sends emails to your child based on answers to questions that mom or dad answer). The girls got bedding for their new bunkbeds that Grandma Patty bought them for Christmas. Keegan got the roundhouse for his train set. Since we are going to Williamsburg, the kids wouldn't have anything to open other than their one santa gift, so the gift cards we received from family at Thanksgiving were used to buy things the kids had on a list and then I wrapped them up and put them under the tree so they could have presents to open. I obviously did a good job picking out stuff from their list because the girls said it was the best Christmas ever!

We had Christmas Dinner at our house with Mike, Beth and the kids which was nice since we don't get to visit with them too often. Julia is almost as tall as I am! We got to watch her beautiful figure skating performance at Nationals where she and her partner Sasha won the gold medal in the Juvenile Dance category at Jr. Nationals! We've got a national champion in the family!!

The Christmas decorations are all down already...different from last year when they were all up past Valentine's Day!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Talk to you all soon.

Take care,

Jenn

New York City Trip with Emma

Well Emma and I had a great time on her early birthday trip to NYC. We had to catch the train in Lancaster because they were doing bridge work between Harrisburg and Mt. Joy. We grabbed a cab to the hotel which was right next to the Hershey store and across from M&M World. Great for me who is on a diet! :) So our room wasn't ready so we stored our luggage and headed to the American Girl Store. We had lunch there and Emma bought the "feel better kit" for her doll and I bought her doll a swimsuit. We walked around a bit but Em wanted to get back to the hotel to go swimming. So she went for a swim, and then we got dressed to go out on the town. We went to Toys R Us...which is HUGE...it has a ferris wheel inside the store! We ate dinner at Planet Hollywood and then went to Sephora and tested all the makeup. We hung out in Times Square and people watched and then went to a couple souvenir shops and then headed back to the hotel.

The next day we went on the NBC Studio Tour like I did with Carey last year. The rest of the day was spent at Central Park and FAO Schwarz before we headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage. Of course traffic was awful...it seems Sundays are worse than Saturdays. Not one cab would take us to Penn Station. They'd pull up to us, I'd tell them we were going to Penn Station and they'd say sorry, won't go that way. What the heck. So we walked 16 blocks with our luggage to Penn Station. I welcomed the 3 hours of sitting on the train so I could rest my feet!

We got home to find a sick Carey in my bed. She had some stomach bug. Her ankle is bothering her again. It seems like now that the weather is cold, it hurts. She had a great summer, running around, having no pain and now it's back. This is so frustrating. She has an appt. next week but I really don't know what else they can do for her.

Right now Keegan is sitting on the potty...I'm bribing him with chocolate...he went potty one time a week ago but still has no interest. We'll see if the M&Ms from M&M World will give him some incentive to start peeing on the potty!

We are getting ready for a visit from Grandma Patty next week. The kids are excited, they love having family stay with us.

Have a great week!

Fall is here!

We are definitely into the fall activities right now. Carey is still golfing, Emma has started soccer and Keegan loves school! When he sees me come to pick him up he tells me to leave. He wants to stay! He loves being there and seems to have a great time since when I peek in he's smiling and laughing. Andy and I took him to see Thomas The Train in Strasburg this week. It's very rare that we take him just the two of us. It's usually just me with him or just Andy with him since the other parent is usually running the girls somewhere. We had a blast! We rode Thomas, got our picture taken, bought some ridiculously high priced trains and a cute hat that Keegan says "All Aboard" everytime he puts it on.

School seems to be going well with the usual adjustment period. Carey has already forgotten to take in her homework 3 times....sigh. Emma has gotten a "warning" on her conduct calendar for talking too much. So we've had discussions with both of them so hopefully they can get on track. Carey has joined the chorus in addition to the band. So December we will have 2 concerts to attend!

Well I must end this...off to pick Carey up from golf lessons and then head over to the Hummelstown Arts & Craft festival. It's my favorite. The close down Main Street and have all the vendors on the street and they have music, food...it's fun. I'm taking Keegan with us...this should be interesting. It's too crowded for a stroller so I might have to put him on the toddler leash!

Jenn

The First Day of School

Today the girls went back to school. They were excited and Keegan thought he was riding the bus with him...boy it wasn't a good scene at the bus stop when they got on and he wasn't allowed to. He threw his toy bus and train and ran down the sidewalk toward the house. He continued to scream and cry for about 10 minutes. He kicked the door, he ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut (for some reason he has chosen the bathroom as the room he goes in when he's mad). He starts school the Wednesday after Labor Day...between him saying "crap" all the time and his temper, the teachers are just going to love him!! :)

The girls both wore their new sneakers and new shirts. However last week when it was the last week of summer vacation for them, it was cold and overcast...this week, sunny and in the 90s so they couldn't wear their new jeans.

I'm busy at the gym getting ready for the school year session to begin and we have open house and swim team registration as well this week. Busy, busy!

Take care and I'll update next week when Keegan goes to school!

Jenn

Summer is almost over!

We can't believe summer is ending! We had a quick visit to Erie last weekend. We spent some time at the zoo and with family and friends. Keegan had a blast looking at all the buses at EMTA. He has an obsession with buses so he was so excited to be the "bus driver." The kids had fun and the weather was nice.

Carey had her appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon this week. I'm finding that the only thing he and rheumotologist agree on is that she has CRMO. We have the leg length discrepancy which she's had now for a few years as I had her looked at by a different ortho back in 2007. This ortho says there is no discrepancy or if there is one, it's very little. But her other doctor wants to keep an eye on it because according to him, it's nearing the point where if the discrepancy is any bigger, she might need orthotics or look into stopping growth in the other leg. Sigh. And the ortho can't understand why she still limps and I said the other doctor thinks she might have arthritis in that ankle but he said he didn't know why he would think that. Sigh again. But she limps more in the morning, never says it hurts, it's just stiff and it loosens up by lunch time and is she almost rarely limps when the weather is extremely hot (like when we were in HHI). People with joint issues experience the same thing and with family histories of arthritis and childhood arthritis, I think the rheumo is right.

Carey is becoming quite the golfer. Her instructor said she's progressing really well and will be ready for tournaments next summer but there aren't many around here so we'd have to travel for those. Andy took her to the private lesson and talked with her instructor and Andy said she's getting really good and since Andy is the golfer in the family and would know if she's good, I'm excited she's enjoying the sport and improving. She does have a local tourney on September 18th. She's nervous to do it but she'll be fine.

Keegan starts school in September. Two days a week, he's going to love it. Hopefully they can get this potty training going for him since he shows little interest in it at home.

Emma is struggling a bit with gymnastics and fear. She has fears about certain skills and knowing very well that a little fear is normal but when it begins to hold you back that's not good, I'm concerned. I've had discussions with her coaches and there is a gymnastics speaker coming to the gym to talk to the parents and gymnasts about fear and other topics in competitive gymnastics so that should be helpful. Emma is really good and it's frustrating to her, us and her coaches that her talent isn't blossoming because she's holding back. Hopefully we can work through it with her.

School is just around the corner and we aren't ready! We've got to get the back packs and schedules in order and get a few clothes to begin the year with. I typically don't buy a bunch of fall clothes right now because it doesn't get cold here until November. And Emma seems to grow every year around this time so by the time she's ready to wear the clothes, she's grown out of them already!

Take care everyone! I'll blog again on the first day of school!

Jenn

Swim Season is over!

This weekend was Divisionals and All-Stars in swimming. Saturday our team hosted Division A Championships (there are 3 divisions). Carey swam the 50 yard backstroke, 100 yard freestyle and the 50 yard breaststroke. Her season has been full of ups and downs...it's difficult to swim at your highest level when you are taking medicines that are used for bone cancer and osteoporosis and also your body is still fighting the disease. She really wanted to drop her time in one of the three events she swam in and she did! She dropped 3 seconds in her 100 freestyle! She was really happy. Emma swam in the 25 yard backstroke, 25 yard butterfly and she was on the 100 yard freestyle relay. Emma dropped her time in both her individual events! She qualified for All-Star Championships today. Out of the 3 divisions, they take the top 16 times in all the individual events and the top 8 relays. Emma made the top 16 in the backstroke (12th) and was 17th in the fly (1st Alternate) and her relay finished 6th overall! So off to All-Stars we went this morning. Carey went to All-Stars a couple years ago with her relay team but this is the first time we went to watch our child in an individual event...we were beaming with pride! Emma finished 13th in the back and her relay finished 6th (we think...final results for the relays were not posted because a huge storm came through so the rest of the meet was postponed so we don't know if there were any DQ's) and she didn't need to swim the fly because all the girls showed up. It was a fun but horribly hot weekend! Heat index Saturday at Divisionals was 105! We had a tent but still it was hot and we were constantly making sure the kids were in the shade and drinking fluids. A girl on our team today at All-Stars fainted and they believe she had heat stroke. Luckily on our swim team we have numerous doctors and nurses (since Hershey has a huge hospital) and they came to her aid and got her cooled down and hydrated enough to get to the car.

The pictures I posted are of Carey in her 100 freestyle and Emma after her backstroke at All-Stars...I know it's hard to tell them apart so I thought I'd clarify!

I'd like to say now the rest of our summer is peaceful but of course it's not. We still have gymnastics and golf and some camps in August. We are looking forward to visiting Erie next month!

Take care!

Jenn

Back from Vacation!

Well, I have a minute to post something. It's been crazy since we got back late on the 19th! Emma had gymnastics camp Monday-Friday all day and also the girls had swim practices Mon-Thu and then a swim meet Saturday. Back to craziness!

Our vacation was very nice and relaxing. We left a day early and went to Myrtle Beach for the first time. We know many people that vacation there and love it and we wanted to check it out before we would change our plans for next summer and vacation there. I'm glad we did. Myrtle is very active, many things going on, crowded beach, not as clean and pristine as Hilton Head beaches. The kids liked our hotel. We stayed at Caribbean Resort and Villas. It was nice, we had an oceanfront view. The resort had a lazy river, a big pool and then another pool with a big slide and a little submarine that squirted water, great for Keegan. It also had an indoor lazy river and little water attractions for small ones. The girls loved the pool with the slide. I guess since we live in an area where there is so much to do and we are on the go so much, going on vacation to us means peace and quiet (as much as you can have w/three kids), beautiful views, relaxing at the beach or pool...just very laid back. Myrtle Beach is not laid back and actually when asked the girls said the prefer Hilton Head but that doesn't mean they wouldn't want to visit Myrtle again. We went to Broadway on the Beach and the girls walked in a ball on water. Well they didn't really walk because they kept falling and Emma never stood up in it, Carey did but Emma kept falling. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium and LOVED it! It was really nice, very interactive, great for our kids. The girls got to touch horseshoe crabs and stingrays. Keegan was deathly afraid of the person dressed up as Sharkee, the mascot for Ripleys. He hates the Hersheypark characters and the Robin at Red Robin.

Hilton Head was HOT! Heat indexes at 110 in June is very hot for HHI. We spent the majority of the time on the beach or in the pool. We did go horseback riding, played mini golf and went to Savannah for a day....our typical vacation. We stayed at a very affordable and nice resort. It sits back from the ocean but we had an oceanview. There was a gator living in the lagoon in between building 1 and 2 of the resort. There were signs posted telling people to beware and not feed it as gators fed by humans start to come to humans for food, which is not good, that's how gator attacks happen. But ignorant people were feeding the gator and you could tell he was associated food with people as when someone would walk past the lagoon, "snappy" as Emma called him, would swim over to where the person was walking. He was little, and I was talking to an owner at the resort and he said that if the gator doesn't leave soon (which he won't because he's fed), they'll have the gator wrangler come in and take him away.

Carey has been walking a little better lately, she has her infusion Thursday. This will be her last for now as they are going to try Enbrel (rheumotoid arthritis drug) injections for her. The infusions are not working as well as the doctor would like, especially in her jaw so Enbrel is another drug used for CRMO. We are waiting for the pharmacy to contact us for delivery and then we need to have a lesson at the hospital on how to administer the Enbrel to Carey. More than likely it's going to be Andy doing it not me.

Emma has gymnastics 4 days a week this summer but we are only sending her to 3 until after swim season is over. Too much for a 7 year old who wants to play with her friends at the pool and in the neighborhood and not train all summer!

Keegan is talking up a storm. He found his "s" the other day. He loves busses but would say "buh" not bus. Now he emphasizes the "s". Too cute! His knees are going to be permanently skinned this summer and he runs and falls on a daily basis.

Andy is busy trying to catch up on the money lost from not taking orders while we were on vacation. In his work, there is no paid vacation so he's working a lot. I'm working at the gym in the office the nights Emma is there and doing birthday parties every other weekend. We plan to come up to Erie the weekend of August 14th. Emma has gymnastics camp the week after swimming is over and then Carey does horse camp after that week and then school starts! Crazy!!!

Hope everyone is well. Take care!

Spring is Here!

Yes, it's springtime and of course a busy time for us (when isn't it?). Emma is still doing gymnastics, soccer and swimming and Carey is swimming (under protest) and has started golf lessons. She likes it but she has discovered it's not as easy as it looks! Keegan is still doing his mommy and me gymnastics class and plays "haw haw" all the time...that means hockey. The boy has a stick and puck in his hand at all times but will occassionally replace it with a golf club. "I hit" he likes to say. He had a great birthday and it was a beautiful sunny day to play with all his new toys!

Grandma Patty visited and planted some beautiful flowers which Keegan loved to help with. It was a cold weekend but she planted all of them and I'm so grateful! Grandma Sue and Papa Mike are coming for a visit this month and they are so excited to see them. With our busy schedules, travelling to Erie is difficult. We hope to make it up sometime in August before school starts.

Hersheypark has opened and the kids are happy. Everytime we pass it Keegan yells "beep beep cars, I ride." He loves Hersheypark which is good but he has no patience for waiting in the lines. I am working a lot of hours at the gym getting prepared for the end of the year Gym Show. It takes lots of planning but I always get nervous that I'm late on something or haven't done something even though I have checklists and have checked them a million times!

Carey had her May infusion yesterday and we got some not so great news. Though after the first couple infusions she seemed to get better, her latest lab results show it's not working as well as we'd hoped. They will increase the dosage of the drug, extend her infusions until September and added another anti-inflammatory with her other arthritis medicine. Please keep her in your prayers that the drug starts working and the CRMO goes into remission.

Carey had her 4th grade band concert last night. She plays the flute and she did a great job. She practices a lot at home which is good to see since I know some kids don't. And I never have to ask her to, she does it on her own but she said she doesn't want to do it anymore. Hopefully she was just in a bad mood when she said it and doesn't mean it because she does a really good job and has come really far...believe me, we can tell!

Hope everyone is well. We are having beautiful weather right now, hope you are too!

Take care,

Jenn

Level 4 States

This past Sunday we were in Allentown at Parkettes Training Facility for Pennsylvania's Level 4 State Competition. Emma's team did a great job! They all had their best all-around scores. In Emma's age division there were 23 girls which is a lot. Emma started out on beam which is her best event but she had a fall which is not like her. She still scored well...8.275 (9th place). Then she headed off to floor. She did a fantastic job. It was the first time she did a round off back handspring with no coach on the floor or spotting her. I cried she did so well...she worked so hard to be able to do that skill and her floor scores all season would have been high if she had that skill. It was great to end the season with that routine. She got an 8.85 (9th place). She went to vault and I was a little nervous because she wasn't vaulting well in warm up. But she got her highest score of the season...8.9. She wanted a 9.0 so bad, that was her goal for the meet, one judge gave her a 9.0 but the other gave her an 8.8 so they average the scores. So after 3 events she was 4th all around! Then the dreaded bars...her nemesis all season. She was very nervous, messed up on a simple skill which isn't good because she's missing 2 major skills in the routine already that she's just not been able to do all season. So she scored a 6.75, her goal was to get a 7.0 since last meet she got a 6.9. Oh well...she dropped all the way down to 19th all-around with that score. But she had her highest all-around with a 32.775 and she had so much fun! We are so proud of her!

Carey had her infusion today. Boring as usual, especially since the room was so empty today which is very uncharacteristic. Usually every chair is filled and when one leaves another takes the chair. When I got there it was just Carey and a boy Myles who has been there before when Carey's been there. Then he left so it was me and Carey. She did one of the crafts her friends gave her and she watched Bride Wars and ready Dog Fancy magazine. We discovered while looking for shoes that her left foot (the one that has the arthritis and osteo) is a smaller size than her right. Almost a full shoe size. Hmmm, we see the ortho next month so I'll talk with him about that.

Keegan shoved a bead up his nose last week. Who knows how long it was there, I thought it was a tic tac Emma had spilled on the floor earlier that week. 2 doctors, 3 nurses, tweezers, nose spreader, ear scraper thingy and suction machine were used to remove that sucker! He's all boy!

Hope everyone has a nice Easter. We won't be coming to Erie this year. The girls long weekend was taken away because of snow makeup days.

Take care!

Jenn

One sport season has finally ended!

Yes, swim season is over! Divisionals were held at our pool and it went smoothly. Carey has not been swimming great the past 3 meets and we were hoping she would get out of her funk but she didn't. She started out so well this season but she says she doesn't want to swim anymore but unfortunately it's the only activity that she can do right now and she's going to have to do it. Hopefully she'll get back into it again when it's summer season...she swims better in the summer because she loves being outside. Emma swam very well. She finished 11th out of 30 in the backstroke just a smidge off her best time and she swam 2 seconds faster in the breaststroke finishing 14th out of 24. She also swam in the medley relay (back, breast, butterfly and free) swimming the freestyle and she swam close to her fastest free time but the girl doing the fly left the block before the breaststroker touched the wall so they were DQ'd. They would have went to all-stars if that wouldn't have happened. Now Emma just has States on Sunday and then competition season for gymnastics is over....however these moms want our girls to go to another meet in May which I don't want to go to and Emma doesn't either...she's ready to be done competing and get back to doing the "fun" stuff at practices.

Carey had her appointment yesterday with the rheumatologist. Our appointment was at 4pm and we didn't see him until 5:20! He said the bloodwork #s showed a positive sign that it's working as one of the indicating numbers of inflammation was 38 in January and before her February infusion is was down to 4. There was another osteo# he wanted to compare but they didn't do a urine test on her in February like they were supposed to so he couldn't compare. So I told Andy to make sure they make her pee in the cup before her infusion next week. He also said another girl the same age as Carey came in with the same thing in her jaw. He's awaiting the biopsy results to make sure it's not infection but he believes it's CRMO. So he said he'd put us in touch w/the mom if the results turn out to be CRMO. He also took her off the sulfasalizine which is the arthritis med since we don't think it's helping. He put her on an anti-inflammatory but if she starts to get worse (the limp) then we'll go back to it...it's hard to say because she does have arthritis in that ankle along w/the bone inflammation so we'll see. She also is having problems with her right heel, where the achilles tendon meets the bone which he wants to watch...people w/Chron's and Psoriasis (two things that people w/CRMO usually have) usually get arthritis is that area of the heel so he wants to keep an eye on it, it could be she just hurt it over compensating for the other ankle while jump roping or playing volleyball in gym.

I'll update you on how Emma does at States this weekend. She's really excited!

Take care,
Jenn
http://www.theredmondblog.blogspot.com

Snow, gymnastics and swimming

Yes, we got snow! About 2 feet and then got another 12 inches on top of that a few days later. I have to say they did a lot better at plowing this time...the last major storm back in February 2003 had us snowed in for days. I think it started snowing on Friday and we didn't see a plow until 10 pm Monday. This time around, the plow actually came through multiple times! The girls had fun playing it the snow, more Carey than Emma. She gets cold too quickly.

Well, Emma qualified for States this past weekend (I don't know why she's sticking her tongue out in this picture). Both she and I were nervous. I've never seen her that nervous...she knew what she needed to score and by the time she got to her 3rd event beam, she knew she had to do that dismount or she wasn't going as she got a lower vault score than her usual and bars was a mess. She rocked it out, did her dismount and medaled on beam w/an 8.35. Then it came down to floor and she need a 7.3 to qualify. She is inconsistent on her round off backhandspring so I told the coach to spot her since she was getting lower scores doing the skill by herself than she was at the beginning of the season w/the spot because she does it so sloppy. I knew she'd be close and had to do all the other elements beautifully and she did...she got a 7.8! So we'll be in Allentown March 6th for States. She was so happy! When they gave her the card w/all her scores and all-around she looked right over at me w/a big smile knowing she qualified.

Swim season comes to a close next weekend. The girls have been battling colds and then we all got a yucky stomach virus so that wiped them out so they haven't been swimming too well. Hopefully they'll be healthy for divisionals and get some good times.

Carey had her infusion treatment on the 9th. She is so bored there, even though she got a bunch of activities from her swimming teammates to make the time pass quicker, she is very grumpy and doesn't talk alot. She just watches DVDs and plays her DS.

Keegan has been talking a lot more and counts to five...actually he can count to 12 but only if I say one # then he says the next. He knows "circle" and know the color red. He gets so excited when he sees other boys and loves to rough house w/them. We went over Beth's Superbowl Sunday and John had his cars out w/the track and Keegan sat there for the longest time playing with them. He's also obsessed with buses. Papa Mike will have to take him to EMTA when we visit this summer...he'll be in his glory! We definitely need to get him more "boy" things to play with at home. The pink Rose Petal Cottage is cute and he does play baby with his sisters but he really likes to smack the hockey stick around and play cars. Luckily he has a birthday coming up and I've already spied a soccer goal and loud sounding cars.

I'll give you an update on how Emma does at States and how both girls do at Divisionals for swimming. We are looking forward to having a break from swimming...it's only about a month break but it will be nice to only have to run to gymnastics during the week and no swim meets or gymnastics meets on Saturdays!

Take care!

PSU Weekend!

We had a great weekend at Penn State. The girls and I drove up after lunch Saturday and stayed on campus at the Nittany Lion Inn (which is right across from Rec Hall where Emma competed). First stop was the creamery for some Peachy Paterno Ice Cream for me, Emma had strawberry and Carey had chocolate. Then we hung out with her other teammates, went to dinner at the hotel and then went to the PSU Women's Gymnastics meet vs. Cornell, Yale and Iowa. It was great. The girls got to go down to the floor and give high fives to the team as they were announced. We saw a perfect 10 that night from a PSU girl on vault! I've been around gymnastics for a longtime and that was the first one I ever saw live! We went back to the Inn, got the team to sign their poster then off to bed. Up at the crack of dawn to get ready for Emma's meet. She had to be dressed and ready by 7:30! Andy traveled up with Keegan (and it's perfectly clear that we will always get a babysitter or one of us will have to miss the meet) to watch Emma compete. She did great! She got a 4th place medal for vault, 5th place for beam and just missed qualifying for states by .25!! Bummer. But she has 2 weeks to clean up her routines and start hitting some of the skills she needs to in order to qualify. We were very proud of her. We then went to Baby's Diner and had some yummy burgers and fries, went to one of the PSU shops next door and got the girls sweatshirts and Keegan a hat he'll never wear and then the girls and I stayed to watch the next session because we had our Level 8s and 9s competing. Then we headed back in the downpour. It was a fun weekend!

Carey went to her first soccer practice last Thursday. No scrimmaging just some drills for her. She wants to go this Thursday but she has a book report due so hopefully missing practice might be an incentive for her to get it done by Wednesday (it's due Friday and she's not even done reading the book...sigh).

Next weekend...swim meet.

http://theredmondblog.blogspot.com/

January Infusions Done!

Carey had her first infusion treatments on Jan. 11, 12 and 13. We were first told only an hour or two but they were 6-8 hours each day. Carey did very well (don't you love her face in the picture I took. She didn't want me to take it). She had a slight fever Monday and by Wednesday her calcium levels were low which we knew would happen so she received some calcium before she left. They have everything a kid could want in this room...dvd players, Nintendo DS's and their games, movies, crayons, paper, craft items etc. We met many families who have children with cancer and they were receiving chemo. It's very sad to see and we will continue to pray for all of them.

Carey received many gifts from her friends and swim teammates to help her pass the time while she's there. Keegan made an appearance a couple days to cheer her up. The last day all the chairs were taken with kids getting treatments so I didn't bring him in since the room isn't that big to begin with. Her next treatment is February 9th.

Last weekend I took the girls and 3 friends to the Farm Show. We had fun. It was crowded but we got to eat really good food that's bad for you and watch the high school rodeo and some other events. The Farm Show is held in January every year and farmers from all over the state come out for a week long event. You can watch it on PCN.

Emma has a gymnastics meet this weekend in Hanover. No swim meets for 2 weekends but we have gymnastics meets this weekend and next. Our tree is still up and probably will be until after gymnastics and swim meets are over. Oh well.

Hope everyone is well and keeping warm. Today it's up in the upper 40s....a heat wave! Haven't had much snow here since mid-December but it's been very cold and windy. Take care everyone.

Jenn

http://www.theredmondblog.blogspot.com/

Happy 2010!

Well, we have high hopes 2010 is going to be a better year than 2009 was! It started out well with Carey swimming her first meet since February 2009. She did great. She won her heat in the 50 meter freestyle and dropped her time by 4 seconds. She finished 2nd in her heat in the 50 meter backstroke and dropped her time by 4 seconds. 50 meter breaststroke she got tired and did not better her time but we were so proud she finished it! She's come a long way since this summer and we just are beaming with pride and joy for her. I posted the video of her 50 free.

Emma did very well too. She bettered her times in the 25 meter freestyle and breaststroke and competed for the first time in the 25 meter butterfly. She had a great time but we are waiting the official results because the butterfly is stroke that many kids get disqualified in and toward the end of her race she got tired and it was hard to see from the stands but she may have flutter kicked. But the fly is very difficult and we thought she did awesome for her first try! She has 2 big gymnastics meets coming up. January 16 she's in Hanover and then the next weekend at State College on PSU's campus for the Nittany Invitational. We are going on Saturday to watch the PSU women's gymnastics meet, spending the night at the hotel on campus and then getting up early for her meet at 8:30 a.m.

Carey has her infusion treatments scheduled January 11, 12 and 13th. Please pray all goes well, she doesn't get sick from the treatment and that the treatment starts working. Before Christmas we saw her nutrionist and eating disorder doctor and they feel with the A.D.D. medicine switch, her weight gain and her eating plan, she doesn't need to see them (unless we feel it's needed). Yay, one less monthly doctor visit! The eating plan has been very difficult to get right for her, and also to make it fair during meal times...everyone needs to finish their plate, which for Emma when it's a meal she's not too happy with (veggies) it can be difficult. Emma usually eats very well and often so sometimes skipping the veggies or maybe not eating everything wasn't a big deal but Carey is made to finish everything (and we have to log it) she has to also. So dinner time usually isn't pleasant in our house. We've been working on it since September and Carey has gained all the weight she lost this summer back and then some. She's been so strong physically and emotionally even though she has kids picking on her about her cheek.

Keegan is REALLY testing his boundaries. Arching his back and throwing himself down when he doesn't get his way is an hourly ritual right now. He also gets very dramatic and covers his face and buries his head. I taught him to say "We are...Penn State" the other day while we were watching the Bowl game. He continues to talk more and more and loves his new Diego toys from Christmas.

We'll keep you posted on Carey's progress and update you on all the kids activities. Happy New Year!!