E.R.

Happy Birthday Duane! October 3rd Duane turned 32. On his special day, something else special happened too! As I'm just about to take Austin to preschool, Ashley tripped and fell on the coffee table downstairs and split her bottom lip open. The gross part is that her teeth went all the way through below her lip line above her chin. Ugh. So I dropped off Austin to school a little early (thank goodness his teachers are so sweet) and took Ash to the Prince William ER. Not fun. After 3 hours of waiting with the dredges of the earth and who knows what airborn illnesses (I stood in the doorway the entire time for fresh air) we finally got called back. Duane was so sweet too-he was actually in the country for this calamity so he took off from the White House (where Condoleezza was) and met me at the hospital. Afterall, this is HIS little princess. After holding her down, sceaming and flailing and sweating, the Dr. got the stitches in and poor Duane couldn't look. He held her body down, but I held her head. They said a numbing shot would be worse than the stitches themselves. They put a topical numbing on her lip, but poor Ash was in pain. So this was the first time one of our children needed stiches. I have a feeling that if there is a next time that one of them will need stitches, it'll probably be Ashley again.

Also this week, we've had tile workmen in our home the entire week re-tiling our kitchen. The tile keeps cracking (2nd time). So I've brought food down for the kids and we have picnics in the basement out of paper bowls and food I have in a box down here. At first the picnics were fun, but now after 4 days, I need my kitchen back. Thank goodness we have a fridge in our garage. They should be done tomorrow.
My mom also came to visit She's coming in for a couple of weeks. Initially to watch the kids while we ran the half marathon, but since I'm still not able to run on my hip, we'll just visit insted. It's so fun having her here!

I forgot to mention last week that Ashley got her ears pierced! We wanted to wait until she was 8, but it was a spur of the moment decision when we were walking by Claire's at the mall! The ladies pierced her ears at the same time and Ash didn't even know what happened. She didn't whimper, not a cry, nothing. She's a tough little cookie. She looks adorable.

Austin started Tae Kwon Doe this week! Oh yeah, and he ended Tae Kwon Doe this week too. He liked the outfit and punching around like a power ranger at home, but once he was in the studio and all of the yelling and "yes sir!" and kids counting in Korean...I think he was a bit intimidated. It was not for him. At least not at age 4. We might try it again in a year.

Austin's "Aqua Dots' came in this week and I don't think a child has ever been more excited to get something in the mail than him--(other than the boy getting the Red Rider bee bee gun for the boy on Christmas Story). It's this cheap toy with lots of parts that's advertised on a commercial during a kids tv channel. Austin has seen it for weeks and had worked up to buying it. It took 6 weeks to come in the mail from the "As Seen On TV" place. 6 weeks of checking the mailbox for the beloved Aqua Dots. Thank goodness he does absolutely love them and plays with them a lot.

Not only has Ash gotten stitches this week, but she also has gotten poked and prodded with the flu shot but also with completing her State Dept Medical clearance physical.

We got the bid list and there are lots of good places overseas. We put in our bids next week as to where we'll be going this summer-July. But we feel strongly that we should stay within the United States for our next assignment until Austin's acid reflux is more under control. With all the follow-up procedures and hospitalizations he'll need, we need to be in the U.S. So...on the list we narrowed it down to: Dallas, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Greenville S.C. , Honolulu, Washington DC. So we should find out at the lastest in January. I personally would love to return to TEXAS!!

Austin's medical update: We got the results back from his endoscopy and ph probe a couple weeks ago. The ph probe was abnormal. Meaning, out of 24 hours Austin refluxed 23 times. Of those 23 times, 13 of them went all the way up to the top of his esophagus and lasted more than 5 minutes. (Makes sense why 90% of his esphagus had burns and erosions all over it). And that's while he's ON acid relux medication. The biopsy also showed he has severe gastritis. It's amazing...he never complains about pain in his stomach or throat. But his severe relux is the cause of his bronchial spasms-the acid goes into his lungs, it irritates his asthma and makes it so his tracheomalacia can't heal. So they've put him on yet another medication to rid everything out of his stomach so that there's no food or acid at all in there. We're giving this a try for the next 8 weeks and go back to see what progress he's made.
Thanks again for all the prayers for Austin. We're slowly getting to the bottom of this issue! We feel very blessed to have such great family, friends and excellent Dr.'s in this area.

Happy Fall!
Angie