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