Feeding the Ducks

This is Lauren totally excited and running to go feed the ducks.


Actually, she mostly just threw bread in the water. I think the ducks were overfed and not at all interested in the three bags of stale bread we brought.

But, she had fun anyway, and it was a good chance to get some pictures of her, and of Katrina and her girls.

We headed to the Central Texas College campus which has a nice pond with a fountain and a bridge, along with a big park area. There were birds and flowers and fish and turtles and the overfed ducks.

It was a good day, even as hot as it was, and we had fun.

Afterwards we headed to Katrina's house to eat dinner and carve pumpkins. I'll have to get the pictures from her. I carved a Cinderella pumpkin for Lauren and a cat pumpkin for mine. They're pretty cute. Hopefully they make it to Halloween.

I got a call this morning to confirm my appointments down in San Antonio. Along with the ultrasound and MRI, I'm meeting with a pediatric neurosurgeon and cardiologist. It will be a lot to do, but at least I'm doing it all in one morning.

Ben heads back to Baghdad on Tuesday to join the rest of his troop. The unit has less than 100 days left over there. We are still waiting to hear the date he'll be coming home. It will depend on what the doctors say this Friday when I meet with them.

29

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN!!

MRI

I got a call today from the scheduling lady in San Antonio. I have a level 2 ultrasound scheduled for October 31st at 9 am, and a fetal MRI scheduled for 10:45 am. They're going to try to get the pediatric neurosurgeon to come see me in between.

I think Lissa is flying in on the 30th and we'll drive to San Antonio to stay at our friend, Victor's house. Then in the morning I'll be able to go to my appointment without getting up at 4 in the morning.

Our realtor came to look at our house yesterday and I'm going to meet with her tomorrow to go over some stuff. I guess we'll put the house on the market in January to try to have it sold by May when we're ready to leave.

I guess that's it for now.

Ready, Set, Change!

We officially got our orders for Germany! In May 2009 we'll go to Fort Rucker, Alabama (again) for Ben to do the Instructor Pilot Course. That's about 6 weeks long and then we head to Germany. We have a lot of details to find out and get through, but I am so excited about it! Our good friends (Katrina and her family) also got orders to the same unit, so that makes it really exciting.


Here's a picture of me from earlier this month. I realized I haven't been posting many pregnancy pictures. I still haven't heard from the hospital in San Antonio. I did put a call in to the OB Case Manager here to see if she could tell me anything, but I'm waiting to hear back from her now, too.

I have an appointment with our realtor today. She's coming over at 2 to walk through the house and make some notes, then I'll have another appointment with her later to go over everything. I know the housing market generally is not good, but hopefully this area will do ok with the base. I'll have to finish this post up shortly so I can do a few more things before she gets here.

Ben's birthday is coming up in less than a week. I wish he was going to be home before then, but that's ok. He will be home soon enough.

This weekend Katrina came over and repainted my master bathroom. It's a really really pretty light blue color called "Sapphireberry" and it is so peaceful in there now.

The weather has also finally started to get a little bit cooler. We've been in the 70s just about every day, even if it has been the high 70s. I would love for it to be in the high 60s already, but I think we still have a lot of warm days ahead of us. I guess I should get my fill of them now before we head to Germany. :)

Pumpkins!

Today we went to a Christmas Tree Farm up in Temple. They had a pumpkin patch and we took the kids. We went with our friends Brandi, Katrina and her daughters, Mandy and her son, and Katherine and her son. There was a pumpkin stand, a haystack to play in, a pumpking painting area, a gift shop and a hay ride.


Lauren also found the tetherball games and liked to push the ball around. Last night she had a bit of a fever and felt better with some tylenol, but she was still a little down at the pumpkin patch. I don't think she had fully recovered and there was so much to do and see while she was there. But she had a good time. After the pumpkin patch we went to our friend, Mandy's house for dinner. She made pumpkin lasagna which was pretty good. I had never had that before.

On Saturday we went to Salado's Christmas in October which was put on in a big tent by the civic center. There wasn't much to it, but we did go in a few shops and stop and get ice cream, which I think was the highlight of it all.

I don't have any new news about the baby right now. I'm waiting to hear from the hospital in San Antonio about when my appointment will be. As soon as I know anything I will let everyone know. I'm also still waiting to hear about when Ben will come home. It should be by the end of this month, but I have not heard anything at all from the command yet. There is also a rumor that we will be getting orders by Friday. Of course, we've been hearing that for a while.

About the only other exciting thing around here that I have to report is that our Cracker Barrel is opening a week from tomorrow. I am actually looking forward to going for breakfast. And Ben's birthday is two weeks from today. Hopefully he'll be home for that. If you are looking for an idea for his birthday, he has only asked for Amazon.com gift certificates.

Aqueductal Stenosis

Yesterday I had another ultrasound.

I don't know where to start.

It wasn't good. The doctor confirmed that the baby does have hydrocephalus. We had seen this on the last ultrasound, but it's gotten worse. She has a type called Aqueductal Stenosis which means that there is a blockage within her brain causing a buildup of the Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF). This causes the ventricles to enlarge and puts pressure on her brain tissue. Since the bones in her skull aren't fused together yet, it can also cause her head to grow larger and be out of proportion to her body. It hasn't significantly increased in size yet, though, and that's not really a good thing. If her head was expanding, it would decrease the pressure on her brain tissue.

There can be some mental retardation associated with this, but the degree varies so much that they can't tell me anything now. I'm being referred to a hospital down in San Antonio so that I can meet with a new Maternal Fetal Physicial and a Pediatric Neurosurgeon. I'll deliver down there and the baby will have surgery within a few days after being born. She'll have a shunt placed to drain the excess fluid, and hopefully that will reduce the swelling and be a good fix.

I wish I knew more to tell you all. There are a lot of unknowns and I really don't know what is going to happen. My doctor did start a red cross message asking Ben's command to send him home asap so that he can meet with the doctors also and to help take some stress off of me.

Knitting and Perfume

I decided on Wednesday that I would teach myself how to knit. I just want to make one scarf for myself for this fall/winter. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought all the supplies and then came home and found tutorials with videos and diagrams. I decided to try a cable knit pattern because I love the way it looks. Kind of ambitious. I started and got about 10 rows in, took it all out, started again and got a few rows in, took it all out. I think I'm doing the purling wrong. So I did just a few rows of straight knitting and then a few rows of straight purling, took it out and started the pattern over. I'm not very far, but it's coming along. I'm sure I'm doing a lot of it wrong, possibly even using the wrong size needles and the wrong weight of yarn, but whatever. It's a learning process. And as long as I get one scarf done, I'll be happy.

Tonight we're going to go to Oktoberfest on base. I'm going with one friend and hopefully everyone else will be able to make it and meet us there. I'm looking forward to good food and hopefully there will be lots of stuff for Lauren to do, and lots of opportunities for me to take pictures.

I ordered some nail polish from Sephora this week because they had an offer for a free 10 day sample of Bare Escentuals makeup, complete with a mini kabuki brush. Let me tell you why I love Sephora: 1. There's TONS of makeup on there. 2. You get 3 free samples with every order, plus more if you have an offer code. 3. They offer free gift wrapping, so every time I get something for myself, it's like a little present and that's a lot more fun to open. 4. They have a rewards program where you earn points and after a certain number of points you can get deluxe samples. So I ordered a new nail polish from Sephora by OPI and it's called BYOBoy. It's my new favorite polish color. I got the BE sample, a sample of shampoo, and two perfume samples. I love perfume samples. They last me forever, I don't have to use them all at once, and if I don't like them on me, they're fun to give away, even as small as they are. This order I got elle by YSL and Gucci eau de parfum II. And I am so happy with both of these scents!! "elle" smells so good and it even is a little spritzer bottle. I think this is what I'm going to ask for for Christmas because I'm just in love with it. Gucci smells really good, too, but it's a heavier scent, and not something I'd wear every day probably. I haven't tried the shampoo or the BE yet.

I ordered part of my Halloween costume yesterday. I'm going to go as Juno. I ordered the slinky tee shirt that she wore in the movie, and I have jeans and a plaid skirt. I just need to go find some converse high tops and I'll be all set. I think Lauren is going to be a ladybug again this year if her costume still fits. We'll try it on this week. If it's too small, we'll go pick out something else.

I watched the documentary Young@Heart this week and I loved it. I recommend renting it.