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.

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