Busy Busy

I would love to tell ya'll how the rest of our summer is all about relaxing and lounging around, but oh would that be a lie.  Looking at my colorful calendar, I'm amazed at the small amount of space left to enter another "thing to do".  Yes, I color code the items.  It's my crazy organizational personality.  My husband likes to call it something else, which we won't post here, but I'm sure you get the point :-)  The next four weeks leading up to school are so busy.  They're packed with 5 doctor appointments for Trace, 6 therapy sessions for him, 8 cheer functions for Peyton and 10 musical rehearsals for her, amongst a few other things.  Can we say overwhelming!  If not for the help of my amazing mom, I don't know how I would accomplish all of this without losing my mind (even with color coding).  So to say the least, no big vacation plans for the rest of the summer.  It has been great so far though.  Most importantly we've been able to spend time with family and friends, some who we rarely get to see.  There's also been lots of swimming (thanks to Mister) and enjoying the experience of visiting a new place.  I hope everyone has had some time to relax and enjoy the summer as we have. 

We saw Trace's ophthalmologist last week and she wants to wait to remove the chalazion.  She's concerned with the risks of anesthesia for him.  Sounds terrible, but I want it gone now.  I just know my boy and it's not going to go anywhere.  So we play the wait and see game, which lasted 3 months last time. 

When you lay your head down tonight, I ask you please say a prayer for my Trace and all those affected by mitochondrial disease.  Thanks for all your prayers and love for our family.

Great Wolf Lodge

We just returned from a vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine TX http://www.greatwolf.com/.  What a fun place!  For those of you not familiar, the resort has an indoor waterpark exclusive to guests only.  Thomas & I said it was built for Trace and all the other heat intolerant children of the world.  We made so many good memories this weekend.  We went with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, who's only a month older than Trace.  It was so nice to be able to spend time with them.  I love my nephew, he has to be one of the cutest kids on the planet and has the personality to go with the looks.  Peyton had a blast too.  She met new friends and danced the night away in the teen club.  They also have a really neat game called MagiQuest.  You get a magic wand and follow clues all around the hotel to complete your quests, kind of like a scavenger hunt.  It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  There are some really brilliant people in this world.  Trace loved everything about it except for the ferret that came to life and started talking to him when he waved his magic wand at it.  I thought he was going to crawl over Peyton's head to get away from it!  I laughed, okay I know that's mean, but it was really funny.  After this weekend, I think my arms are about 6 inches longer than before :-)  Trace couldn't handle walking without exhausting himself, so we carried him everywhere to help him conserve his energy for the fun stuff.  I just wasn't thinking about needing a stroller, but can tell you I'll never make that mistake again.  It was so worth the sore back & arms to see his face light up and hear the excited "Yeah!" he said all day.  What a great weekend with family!

On a not so great note, I'm feeling sad this week as another mito baby gained her angel wings.  She was just shy of 5 years old and fought this disease her entire life.  Please pray for peace and comfort for her family. I can't help the emotions I feel when this disease takes another child.  Children aren't supposed to leave the earth this soon.  They aren't supposed to live their lives with tubes, machines, medicines and all else that comes with this disease.  They are supposed to run, play, eat, sing, dance and all the other fun things they can dream of.  Despite everything though, these children are the strongest, most loving, happiest babies I've ever known.  They amaze me. 

It's Back

Last week was rough for Trace.  He was fighting a cough, runny nose and woke up with a very swollen eye.  He's still fighting the runny nose and cough, but it takes him a little longer than most to recover from a simple cold.  The swollen eye is the same one he just had surgery on in March to remove three chalazions.  A chalazion is a cyst in the eyelid caused by inflammation of a blocked gland.  I took him to his ophthalmologist who confirmed it's another chalazion.  Ahhh!!!  We're trying the eye drops, again, in hopes they will get rid of it this time.  Last time we did drops and other measures for about three months before we finally had to resort to surgical removal.  I don't want to put him through another surgery, even if it's just to remove a chalazion.  Even a simple procedure is complicated for mito kiddos.  Trace has to have much more anesthetic than other children - comes with the mito.  He also takes longer to come out of anesthesia, which is not exactly comforting.  Please pray it goes away on it's own.  Even though it looks terrible, my baby is still smiling!!  I love him so much!