Big 15 Eve

It has been a busy few days. 1st I will say that Brody is doing MUCH better. After another Rocephin shot and more antibiotics, it appears they have the staph infection under control. YAY!
We went to the River Saturday to celebrate Syds bday. It was exciting and fun. We took advantage of a pretty day and Brian, Devin & Daddy cleaned out one side of the lillypad bed that they inherited. (My Daddy would have NEVER let it get that bad!) It went really good. Although I will say that my Daddy scared me completely to death. I wont give details on here but trust me ... It took a year or two off my life. whew. Anyway, lunch was wonderful of course. Then we went on a hour long boat ride and took Devin/Sydney intertubing. It was a great day. We went by and saw Brodyman on our way home. He was just too cute. Bayley LOVES him and followed him around facinated with him. It was too cute!
Today was church of course. Everything was good there. We went to Don & Gails for Syds bday after church. It was fun. Corra & Becca are both too cute. Corra is so big and cute. She is 5 months and 19 lbs (according to Syd weighing herself with Corra) It was a good day.
Today is the eve of Sydneys big 15th birthday! Im so excited for her! I will be posting again in a few hours just for Syd.

OK just a quick update. Last week was a lil crazy. Brian was sick with a fever/pain virus but he seems to be better. Poor Sydney had it the last few days but appears to be getting better. Me & Bay have both escaped so far. Bayley is a wild woman! She is into everything and keeps us on our toes. She is really starting to like her sippy cup better so we will start weaning her off her daytime bottles soon. (She is still on 4 a day as of now.) 15 years ago on August 25th was Sydney's due date. I cant believe she is fixing to be 15. She is BEYOND excited...and actually about to drive us all crazy with anticipation of DRIVING! Im just o so happy that I can medicate now cause Im definitely gonna need it! Another update: My moms kitty "Chunk" had good results and he is all negative! He is back to enjoying the good life at the river spending most of his time eating and sleeping happy as can be. Please keep my sweet little nephew Brody in your prayers. He has had a horrible week. Sunday he had what Chris said looked like maybe a pimple on the back of his leg almost to his booty. It was a little tender and red but they didnt think anything of it. Well Monday morning he couldnt even walk and was in horrible pain. THey didnt make the connection but thank goodness my brother took him on to Dr. McDaniel because he thought he might have a hernia. Well he didnt have a hernia but Dr. McDaniel said it was a boil on the back of his leg and his white blood cell count was sky high. Brody has a MRSA staff infection. He has been running 101-102 fevers and has also been throwing up some (but we think that is nerves bc of all he has been through). They have lanced the boil 3 different times which you can imagine is horribly painful. He has had 3 Rocephin shots and is on his 2nd oral antibiotic with little to no improvement. Dr. McDaniel told them today that it is a little better but it is just not responding like they want it to. They go back to Dr. McDaniel at 9:30 in the morning and she said that if there was not a good bit of improvement she would refer them to Childrens ER. As you can imagine Chris & Alan are beside themselves with worry. Brody has been a little trooper and has profited through TONS of attention, balloons, new movies & many a trip to Walmart for a prize to help him deal with this. Keep in mind Brody just started 5K a week or so ago. So anyway, please keep little Brody in your prayers and say a special prayer for him tomorrow morning that they will get good results and be able to stay out of the hospital. Tene loves you Brody Man and I will be praying that you get good results and you dont have to go back in that room with Paulette any more! I will update more tomorrow & attempt to put some pictures up.

Just a quick update. Bayley's slight fever Saturday escalated into a 2 day temp-o-thon where she kept 102-103 fevers. We did good if we got it down to 101. We put Bay to bed like normal Saturday night but she was up at 11ish unhappy so I just crashed on the couch with her. Well Bay woke up at 12 sick as a dog....and of course I was covered :( Bless her heart she was miserable. She never got sick again but continued to battle the fever and just being an unhappy lil girl. We went to see Dr. Tindle yesterday morning. Bay's left tonsil was inflamed and her left ear is infected. Dr. Tindle put her on Amoxil for 10 days. I am happy to say that Bay is already lots better. The only good news we got was a HUGE weight gain .... 17 lb 5 oz!!!! (I must confess that was fully clothed with a big ole wet diaper and shoes on but who cares it is still 17 lb 5 oz!!!) We were thrilled. Dr. Tindle was so impressed with her. I gave Pudding Cups all the glory as that is Bayley's newest obsession! lol The only bad news we got was that we will have to do the Synagis shots again this winter...YUK YUK YUK and Bayley will be the most unhappy with this as those shots hurt something terrible. Apparently even with her huge gain we still fall short of where she needs to be so Dr. Tindle said it was a MUST. So if you need me the 1st Tuesday of every month from October - May you know where to find me...Kiss $240.00 in copays goodbye although I will take it since the big bill of $12,000 will be paid by BCBS!

In other news, Syd is loving school ...so far! She is couting the days til the big 15!!! Start praying now....we will need it!

Also, if you are a cat lover...say a prayer for my parents adopted river kitty "Chunk" he hurt his foot and had to go to Dr. Kahn. Apparently the foot is just an infection but Dr. Kahn thinks Chunk has leukemia or feline AIDS. They are running the tests now and will know tomorrow. You can imagine that my mom is quite upset as is my daddy. Say a Kitty prayer that Chunk will get good results.
More later

Long blog but full of Eventful Info...some good some bad!

Ok here goes my update for now:

July 29th - I registered Sydney for school. Can you say BROKE! $266.00 ... I bought died! Sydney's schedule was about what we expected. They are doing this modified block schedule with A days and B days which is wierd. This is Syd's schedule:

A Day

Geometry with Ms. English

US History Honors Pre AP with Mr. Erreca

AP Biology with Mr. McCloud

Soccer

B Day

Health/Drivers Ed with Mr. Pnazek

English Honors PreAP with Ms. Shalaby

Chemistry Honors PreAP with Ms. McCloud

Soccer

After registration Syd had a dentist appointment. It went good and luckily was quick. Overall it was a decent day.

Here's a pic of Baybay and her favoite person "DADADADADA"

July 31st - Syd had a doctors appointment and had a test run which was fine. Then we flew to Jasper to eat lunch with Becky Rae & Emily and then headed to Daryls for eye appts. Sydney needed glasses to use when driving and to use in class at school. One eye is near perfect and the other is just barely bad enough to need correcting. She picked out some cute frames. After that we headed home for a few minutes then to Pams for a Devotional. It was fun. Syd got a good laugh out of Pam's Boo Sign. lol Bayley had a good time walking around and eating Susan's Birthday Cake! It was YUMMY!!! Sydney doesnt even like cake and she loved it!

August 2nd - We headed out and went to Maddie Randall's 1st birthday party! She is a stinkin doll! Bay had fun playing with her. Joe had grown up so much and was too cute. Kelly and I used to work together and we ended up both using Dr. Stradtman and we were only 2 weeks apart on our due dates. Who would have ever thought that would happen!

After Maddie's party we headed to the Galleria to shop. It was fun but SOOO busy! Syd got a good bit of stuff which she definitely needed. We tried out Bay's umbrella stroller that April & Jason gave us as a shower gift and Bayley LOVED it! She stayed in it for over an hour which was amazing for Bay! It was a fun day.

August 5th Bay LOVES her soccer ball that Syd got her for Christmas. The harder you play with her the better she loves it!

August 8th - I did a mini photo shoot in the front yard trying to get an end picture for a video I was working on. I wouldnt call it a huge success. lol

Here is a shot of Bay and one of her bestest friends PupPup.

Can you tell that she was done?!?!!

Our Big ole BayBay!August 9th - This was the big Duke family party at the River. It was so much fun. We ate probably the best ribs of my life. Mother changed the way she cooked them and they were OUTSTANDING! Bay ate Fantastic. Aunt Kaye had gotten the pulled pork and it was soooo good! Bay ate a good bit of it which was so funny to see. She also loved the watermelon and strawberries! YUM. Anyway after all the food we loaded up the boat and headed out on a ride to Howtons to go on the rope swing. That ended up being hmmm stressful to say the least. Alan ended up going off it first because no one has told him he is OLD!?!?! Then Devin took his turn. By this time Me, Chris, Kaye, Syd, Bay, Alana & Bro were floating around like crazy in the boat because none of us knew how to drive the boat to move it out of the way so we were up against the bank and Chris kept saying she saw a huge bird which i never saw (was it her imagination or real??! who knows) This whole time Bay was being the best baby in the world asleep or laying awake being super quiet which was amazing. Anyway if this story seems crazy believe me it isnt near as crazy as it was to be there. Ok it was Lacy's turn...now if you dont know Lacy she is my precious baby cousin (19 years old) who stole my thunder in life by becoming the youngest granddaughter...Im not bitter anymore, anyway she was also a gymnist for YEARS and a cheerleader in highschool, and a bit of a daredevil. So we didnt think anything of her deciding she was going to go off the swing. Ok I have to say that there were a couple of HUGE rocks at the base of the hill and the whole bottom of the river there is filled with rocks. So Lacy goes off the swing and lost her grip and fell WAYYYY before she should have. She ended up hitting water but where she went in was only maybe 3-4 feet deep and totally rock lined. We about had a stroke. She ended up being ok other than being majorly scraped with severly bruised ribs. The nut even got up and said she was going to do it again...My Aunt Kaye very quickly convinced Lacy to get in the boat. Man...talk about scaring us to death...she was SOOOo close to hitting her head on that big rock...I love you and am so glad you are ok Lacy Duke and dont even think about ever doing that again!

Syd & Devin acting like NUTS!

Aunt Kaye & her BayBay

I finally got a picture of Chris with Bay when Chris' eyes are actually open so I wanted to put it in here! lol

Sydney & two of her favorite boys!
O and as we were all leaving Mother & Daddy's Bay said "Bye" for the first time! She said it over and over. It was so cute!

August 12 - This was a good day. Sydney had an appointment at Childrens' for her kidney issues. We got what I consider either nothing we didnt expect and just really good advice. Ok so to the enlarged kidney... they said that her right kidney is enlarged but this is also the kidney with two uretors and they said the whole right system looks abnormal which is what we expected and the best scenerio. They said they didnt think it was anything to be alarmed at. We went over tons of reason why Syd could be getting UTI's and learned TONS of stuff. I have to say it was a very informative visit. They put her on a couple of different medicines and we go back in 3 months. We were super pleased about the visit.

August 13th - This was a very eventful day! Today was the first day of school. 10th grade!!Sydney has had a few VERY LATE NIGHTS listening to Gone with the Wind on tape trying to get ready for the first day. She looked super cute and had a really good first day. She liked her A Day classes...that is gonna be hard to get used to. lol Today was also Bayley's Corrected 1st Birthday!!! Bayley was due August 13th and medically she is followed based on this date. When I got home from work we had a little fun with Bay. The night before Brian got out Sydney's little tykes cube for Bay to play with. She was hysterical. We had to put socks on her to keep her from going head first. Once she caught on she LOVED it.

Today was also Brody (and Addi's) first day in Kindergarten. We talked to him tonight and he said he liked it. He rode the bus home which he was especially happy over. We love you Brody Man and cant belive you are growing up so fast!

We celebrated Bay's corrected 1st Bday tonight with her favorite thing..A LEMON PUDDING CUP. She loved every bite of it. You have to love all the Lucky Charms around it. She only eats the marshmellows by the way! lol

Anyway our day went MAJORLY south after this! My neighbor Tammy called me to tell me that one of my neighbors pled guilty of Sexual Abuse of a Child less than 12 years of age on Monday 8/11. I just cant tell you the panic that went through my head. Mr. Jordan lived across from us and two houses to the left. He was on disabiltiy and always home. We had a casual relationship with him and he did watch our house for us and tried to "keep our neighborhood safe." wow that is a stretch! To be safe I called the Sheriff's Department and spoke with a Detective Reach with the Sex Offenders Division and verified all of the following information. Mr. Jordan was charged in January 08 with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor child. He apparently missed a court date and was escorted to court on Monday where he pled guilty. He received 10 years suspended sentence and will serve a maximum of ONE YEAR but with good behavior he could be out in as little as six months. This was VERY concerning with Det. Reach telling me that it takes approximately six months to even get letters out saying you have a sex offender in your area. The good news is we live within 2000 feet of TWO daycares and therefore he will not be allowed to return and live in his house as this will violate his probation. I have to say Sydney was Right!!! She has said for years that Mr. Jordan gave her the creeps! If you havent already you need to be checking the Sex Offenders web site and warn your kids about not just talking to strangers...unfortunately these days its just about everyone because according to Det. Reach it is most commonly someone the child is very familiar with.

And last but not least .... 436 Days have passed and my time of feeding Bay has come to an end! WHEW! I cant tell you what it has meant to me especially when she was so little and I couldnt touch her much less do anything else for her. It has been a blessing to be able to pump this long. Although we did start supplementing at 10 months to try to increase weight gain I still pumped for the enzymes until Bays corrected 1 year. I will not miss carrying this bag and a freezer bag with me everyday! Goodbye little black bag...you served your purpose well and I would like to say you will be missed...but I dont wanna lie!

August 14th - Bayley said Sissy for the first time tonight! Sydney was thrilled. Syd and Devin had Bayley and Devin must have said Sissy Sissy Sissy a thousand times and she finally said it. I think she said it just to get him to shut up but either way Syd was thrilled.

August 16th - Today has been a good and lazy day. Lots of naps and tv watching. Only bad news is that Bayley has a fever very slight just 100.3 we are hoping it is just teeth...cause she still has NONE of those!!! More later.