Clean-shaven

After 11 years, and a lot of begging on my part, Dave has given me the gift of a clean shaven face! Alas, as he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to "surprise" me, he was met with traumatized expressions from both boys! Davey started to cry and Joey told him (quite sternly) to go get into his car, and find a new mustache!

Needless to say, I love the clean shaven look! The 80's are over and I think my husband is incredibly handsome, either way, but I really like seeing his upper lip!

Dave sent out an email to a bunch of friends, starting an improptu poll, as to whether or not he should keep his mustache off. So far the "keep it offs" are winning! Of course that means a bit of therapy for the children! :)

What do you all think? Vote now!

Merry Christmas

To all our friends who have followed our crazy journey these past two years: Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad y prospero Ano Nuevo! We love you!

...remember, Jesus is THE GIFT !!


(Luke 2:9-12)And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. (10) And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

(Luke 2:13-14)And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, (14) “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Some pictures...

These are just some fun pictures of the last week that I wanted to share. The tree looks prettier than in this picture, if I don't say so myself! But I am not the best photographer...

We are looking forward to baking more yummy things this week, and wrapping presents and watching Christmas movies and having hot cocoa!! Good times at Christmas!!

Great News!!

Dave spent the whole day up at Cedars Sinai getting another IVIG antibody infusion, which is just protocol at this point. But 8 hours later he is tired and HUNGRY. :)

While he was there, the transplant coordinator called him to tell him that his labs are stellar! His creatinine is now 0.9, which is completely within normal limits of a person with TWO working kidneys. Praise God!! Plus...get this....they have decreased his anti-rejection meds about 70% from where they initially started him. He was a high risk going in, but he is doing so well now, they can start tapering the meds.

God is so good. We are humbled by this; yet another example of answered prayer.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Frustrated!

After years of trying to figure out how to get back into the medical field, and then deciding on becoming a PA, today was my first orientation at one of the three area universities that has a MS in Physician's Assistants. To my sad surprise, the program is two 27 unit semesters of lecture and classroom studies, and one entire year of clinical rotations. The rotations are awesome. They place you, and it could be as far away as Lake Arrowhead or the inner city. The tricky part is that the rotations are broken into 4 weeks of each major specialty, so your hours are whatever your supervising physician's hours are.

I am a mom. I have a household to run. I am a home schooler. How on earth am I going to do this???

To top it all off, as I sat there in the lecture hall, toggling somewhere between depression and exhilaration, the speaker gives an example of someone who really should re-think their commitment to the program. Are you ready for this? The example he gave was a "...mother of young children, married, who lived farther than 30 minutes from the campus, like Orange County." When he was asked (by another student) how far was too far, his answer was, "...oh probably Mission Viejo."

Seriously, was this divine intervention or just plain bad luck??

I am praying about this, and hoping God will continue to guide me in all of this career stuff.

Tomorrow I will begin checking out more options, and see where I land.

Tonight I am going to have a cup of cocoa and take a hot bath....

Weekly Clinic

It took the better part of three hours (THREE HOURS) to drive up to the hospital today. There must have been accidents galore, or something weird, because what is usually a long two hour trip during rush hour was nearly unbearable. Plus, Dave and I don't like the same music. I love praise music in the morning, but when I am driving in stop and go traffic, I need Creed or Nickleback or Daughtry to keep me from zoning out. Dave likes country music. I like a little country, but not a lot. Sort of like Donny and Marie...ha ha! So we end up playing a game of "my turn" with the radio stations. Then it happened. As I am stuck...literally sitting on the 405, my fuel light starts blinking. Oh no!!

We finally got up to Cedars Sinai at almost 9:30 AM. That's late, really late. Dave is supposed to have blood work done between 8 AM and 8:30 AM. No way that was happening this morning. But we made it; better late than never.

It seemed that everyone we talked to at the transplant clinic had heard about Dave's eventful Friday. It was pretty funny when even the receptionists were asking him if he was planning on staying out of the hospital longer than a week this time. I told them I was convinced that he must have a weird love of green jello, and it just tastes better in one of those adjustable beds!

We got his lab results this evening. Good news! Every level looks really good. They are bringing down his rejection medication, which indicates that his body is taking well to the new kidney. His blood sugar has stabilized, which I was pretty concerned about. His creatinine levels are completely normal!! Amazing results!!

We will be going back on Friday for another clinic and more blood work. Maybe I will ask Santa for a helicopter this year! That would be a lot easier than driving!! :)