wow....we've got a lot done!

disclaimer: If you have your magnified glass out and are looking through all of the piles and stacks that are "for sale" do not be alarmed or offended if an item that you once gave or owned is in these said piles. I cleaned and cleared and asked a series of questions. If the correct answer was not given to every question the item was deemed "not able to move to greenfield". If your feeling are still hurt then go ahead and get 7000 square feet of stuff (4500 of house and at least 2500 of attic and basement!) and fit it in a 2000 square foot house! I am saving them the agony of realizing that it will not all fit!!!! If we would have kept it all there would have no room for you to come and visit. And if you still feel some kind of attachment to the items there is a good chance that you could visit Twice as Nice, Goodwill or the Crisis pregnancy Center and get it all back!!! (but then your kids will do the same thing to all of your stuff before you know it...it is a vicious cycle!)

who wouldn't want to stop and see??

room #1

Room #2...everything you see is for sale. If it is on the walls, the tables or the floor it is for sale!!

Rooms #3 & #4 not pictured!!!

Keeping the kids entertained...every dumpster needs a good cleaning!

the volunteer army... Lori, Bridget and Claire

The bathroom after scrapping and before plaster!

Grandpa & Olivia paintingJed & uncle Marc refinishing floors!The help is going crazy!!!To much work...not enough fun!!!

Ok... I am back.. not quite back to the land of the living as I am soooo tired, but back! It has been a CRAZY week! Where do I start?
We have been busy at mom and dads house with cleaning, painting, refinishing floors and holding the worlds largest moving sale ever! We did AWESOME and were very successful at moving out allot of “treasures”! Today we have been sorting and delivering: some to consignment, some to goodwill and some to the crisis pregnancy center! I feel so great to have gotten rid of so much! I feel so free!
Mid week we had a terrible storm pass through Freeport. The lighting was incredible and the thunder down right scary! Jed was out of town for 4 days and of course that is when the lighting and thunder come crashing in. We lost power for about 40 hours.... never a dull moment. Luckily, it was just my area here in town (you are surprised right. I am not usually in the bottom percentages!) Mom and dad had power so we just camped out!
We are slowly starting to get back into the normal routines here. School is starting in just a few short weeks. Is that possible? Madison is still really struggling with bowel recognition. Some days we will catch something when I have her sit on the potty but other then that we are always having accidents. She is no where near ready for underwear. It is very frustrating as we will be 5 weeks post-op on Thursday. Madison has her follow up appointment on Thursday in Cincinnati so the two of us will be heading out on Wednesday night. It will be along few days in the car but it will be fun to have time with her. She is a great traveler! We have made hotel reservations near a huge scrapbook store so we are planning on getting all of the stuff to make her birthday invites! She is having a very special birthday party and we need very specific items for the invites! We will also be going to get all of her school supplies! As you can imagine she is very excited about all of that as well!
Unfortunately, we think that the C-diff may be returning. The last few days I have seen some signs that alarmed me and then today some definite warning flags went up. She has been off the anti-biotics for 8 days now. Dr. Levitt has ordered a stool sample and has started her back on antibiotics as a precaution until the sample comes back. If it is negative we will just stop the meds. I had a feeling that he would treat aggressively as it is so dangerous. We will have to wait about 3 days once the sample is collected to get any answers. I am hoping that we can have those by the time we meet with him on Thursday.
I talked in length with Madison's teacher this morning. As the days tick by and we get closer to school starting my discouragement rises. I was so hopeful that things would have worked themselves out by now and that Madison would be able to be in undies and doing great. For some reason that is not where we are at. I am struggling to except that but am trying to stay positive and keep believing that none of this is a surprise to the Lord. Why Madison has to struggle so much will be a question I will have to deal with. Mrs. Hollis was great and is so understanding of all that Madison is going through. The school is willing to work with me as much as possible to make this as easy for Madison as possible. If the C-diff has returned I do not believe that enemas will even be an option right now. I talked with Miriam a little tonight and she implied that enemas would not be effective with the infection and antibiotics. Dr. Levitt has said that if by school we are no controlling her bowels that we would began the enema program for 3 months. My heart aches to think of that possibility. I will continue to trust his judgment as I feel like he has always done what was in her best interest. It is hard to weigh all of the options. The advantages of not doing enemas are that there would be no daily agony. It is so miserable to administer the enemas and so devastating for Mads. The downside of not doing them is that there is always the possibility that there could be teasing and joking that Madison is the only one that wears diapers. She has become immune to her own odor and it makes it difficult as she is not aware of an accident until I smell it. My heart breaks to think of what kids could say that would hurt or embarrass her.
So allot will be determined in the week ahead. Is there a new infection? Will she start school or will she be back in isolation? Will we start enemas? Is there still strong belief that bowel recognition is possible?
So much to take in and process. I broke down today for the first time in awhile... (Sorry Connie that you had to be there for that!) It is so hard. I try to be strong and some days I do really good, or at least do really good acting the part! Today has been hard. So we will start over tomorrow and pray for the strength to get through that day. I need to stop looking ahead as that gets to overwhelming. So here we are again, smack dab in the middle of a situation where we have to chose to have faith and believe that the Lord has an amazing plan for Madison's life, no matter how difficult.
Thanks so much for your continued prayers!! we all need them!
I will keep you posted!
Nikki

o my gosh I am tierd!!!

it is good to look at these to remind me of why we are working so hard!!
isn't beautiful!!! I am so happy for my parents!!

the walkout basement....

the secert garden

ok...since I last blogged my parents looked at a house, bought it and have had the biggest moving sale you have ever seen!! I think that I have logged about 60 hours since Sunday (seriously!!) and we have made unbelievable strides in the right direction.



We may be a little crazy! We are fixing their house, packing and holding the sale all at the same time. I have some great pictures of what all is going on! i will add those tomorrow when I get a hold of my moms camera! the new house is absolutely georgeous!



I wanted to update you all so that you did not think that we had all been abducted! I will do a longer entery later....my eyes are about to close and I have to be back on "money duty" at the sale at 8am!

a sad day....

taking down the crib

Mommy pouting that I have no more babies!

The nursery is now the playroom!!

daddy takes a breather after disassembling the crib

Olivia approves of the playroom

Piles of stuff to pitch or take to the attic!

more piles!

The garage...starting to overflow!

I am so sad.... there are officially no more babies in the house. We packed up the crib after 6 years of it being a part of the family. I am in no way saying that it will not come back out at some point but it was hard to see it get taken down and brought to the attic. I am way to sentimental! the nursery is now the playroom and Maddie and Olivia are sharing a "big girl room". I will add pictures of their room when I get it all done!!

We continue on the journey of getting rid of stuff. The garage is OVERFLOWING with stuff to sell. Part of me just wants to take it all right to goodwill.... My sisters have convinced me that they need to go through it, so I will continue on!! It feels so good to get it all out! I do not remember the last time that we had empty shelves and drawers! WoooHoooo!

I will keep you informed on the purge!!

Nikki

getting rid of stuff.....

oh to have the imagination of a child!

We have been busy (in a isolated way) since being home. I came home with a new sense of urgency to GET RID of STUFF. I think that being away for 3 weeks and living just fine on what was in our little suitcases, well maybe medium sized (!), made me realize that all the extra is not necessary! So we came home and I began tackling! What else is a girl to do when her child is in isolation and she can not leave her house?? I have started stacking the garage full of things that I have been holding onto for years! I am purging every closet, cabinet and drawer. I am having way to much fun getting rid of lots! I am so compelled to live simply.

You know a big part of it comes from that ah-ha moment when you really, I mean really, get what is most important in life. I am embarrassed to say that it took me 30 years to finally get there. As the days ticked by in the hospital I thought less and less about what was left behind. You just get in a zone where nothing matters but trying to keep those you love the most together and happy. Everything else just becomes noise if you will. You could have told me in the midst of that stay that if I did not return immediately my house would be gone along with everything in it and I would not have thought about leaving. I would not have packed up and left Madison to "save" our belongings...because nothing here has lasting value to me. ( mom I would have called you to get the scrapbooks!!) So then when I returned and there was GOBS of stuff and it almost frustrated me. I start thinking about all that I want to be able to do to help others, specifically Cincinnati Children's and I feel guilty that I have so much. So we are minimizing and man does it feel good!

I will have to take some picture! You will all be so impressed with the emptiness in the closets! I still have a LONG way to go but everyday I am doing one thing to move me in the right direction! I may need to take stock in Tupperware, I am loving stackable bins and organization...maybe they would donate a portion of all of my purchases to CCH!!!!

As for Sweet Maddie Grace... since that is probably why you stopped by! She is doing good. Her bottom is getting a little better everyday! I have been emailing with Dr. Levitt and am encouraged as he tells us not to be discouraged by all of the accidents. He said because of the "extreme bowel prep" that they did before surgery and what was done during surgery that her colon and has been traumatized.... I could have told you that from seeing the pictures! He says that he really believes that she will get that sensation back in the next few weeks. We are praying that is exactly what happens!!!! We have added the pectin back in which totally bummed her out as that is a nasty tasting one that we mix with yogurt. I am thinking that the reason for that is to bulk up the stool to give her a better chance to feel the need to go potty. We will see how that goes! She finishes her anti biotic for the c-diff tomorrow and then will be retested in a week to make sure that she is free and clear!

Thank you so much to all of you who continue to show us so much support! We so appreciate it!

Nikki

magic butt cream....

Here it is... This is the "medical name" for the new prescription that we picked up today! The girls think that it is so funny!! They just keep giggling and laughing! I am not sure if it is Dr. Levitt's secret formula or what... the pharmacy called and said they had to order some dry ingredients to mix us a special cream that was called in!?

We will see how it works!!! Fingers are crossed!

Bad news and good news:
Bad news first....
Booty rash is still flaring its ugly face.... she is miserable. Had to call Cincinnati today to get some different medicine as it is getting so bad that she can hardly function. She does not want to sit or walk and cries about how bad it hurts all day. Every diaper change is a fight. We have resorted to a bath after every dirty diaper....she has had about 20 baths in 48 hours! Today she started to scream when the water would hit the sores.... I am not sure what else to do.
The nurse in Cincinnati said that because her colon is moving faster now as there is less “road to travel” the body does not get rid of enough of a bio-salt ( I am not sure that is the correct name...some sort of salt though.) The salt reeks havoc on the booty..... and the cycle begins.
So in a nut shell the bad news is that Madison HAS a real pain in her butt!
Good news....
Because Madison is so miserable I am trying to “catch” as many poops on the potty as possible to avoid having it in her diaper. I have had her sit on the pot 3 different times for about 5 minutes today. Each time she pooped!!! I am still not sure that she is feeling it. But as long I can get her to sit and she can relax we are having luck, at least for today! We will consider this a step in the right direction. We all needed a little encouragement.
Last night was hard. I have not seen Jed cry since they wheeled Maddie away for surgery, until last night. Madison had a breakdown about how its all not fair...Jed was telling me that she had said that she is the only one in her family that gets sick, the only one in her family that wears diapers and then he began to get choked up as he said that she said... 5 years old are not supposed to wear diapers dad. So there we sat in the dark on the deck crying..... I guess those times will come on occasion. We are thankful for the small victories today. Thank you Lord for giving us a glimpse of hope in a time that it was desperately needed.

starfield.....

Madison went with Jed a little less then a year ago to her first concert! Starfield was playing at Park Hills church. Madison LOVED it. I will go as far as to say that she had her first crush. She came home with an autographed picture of all of the band. I had to have it laminated because it went everywhere with us! A few days after the concert she came into my room early in the morning. I was sound asleep. She woke me up and said “ mom how do you spell marry me?” I looked over and I saw that she had copied one of the guys names and was writing him a letter. She has good taste, he was the cutest one! I asked what she was doing as she ran off giggling!
You can only imagine the excitement when she saw this years summerwood schedule and there was Starfield!!! We marked all of the calendars in the house and COMMITTED to be there. Then we learned about her surgery..... several times she told doctors that she had to be home for the concert. We started to get worried towards the end of the stay that we would not make it back.
We got home with 48 hours to spare! The Smith family was at the concert. Madison was in heaven... She listened and sang! She smiled for 2 hours straight! Olivia was not so entertained.... at one point she looked at me and yelled, literally, as it was soooo loud in there, “do you want to play I spy with my little eye?”. I laughed and told here we would have to wait until after the music stopped.
When the concert was over we made a b-line for the merchandise table. Madison asked for the poster and I convinced her that she needed the whole set...cd, t-shirt and poster! Give me a break.... you would do the same thing if your child just went through all that she has....
We waited in line for the autographs and she was so excited.... she was bouncing all over the place. When we got up to the table they asked if she liked the concert. She replied with a very quick YES! When they asked what her name was she responded with a little bit of annoyance in her voice .... “Madison, but you already know me from the first concert”.! I died... they looked at me for a little back up. I quickly said.... yeah at park Hills in Freeport last year. To that they responded, O yeah...how are you Madison!!!!
Jed and I died! As we were walking to the car she said “ I need to add them to my birthday party list. I want them to sing at my party”. I told her that we would get daddy right on that!!!