I’m loving this video.  In an age where we are technology-driven, this reminds us of the real story.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Okay, not necessarily a story.  Although I can make the smallest of situations into long stories. I’ll do my best to abbreviate it! Emma stayed overnight last night at PCH.  We’d done this before almost 2 years ago.  This time was a piece of cake!  I had new books, coloring books, and activities up my sleeve.  We had visitors lined up, and Disney channel on 24/7.  She only asked to leave 1 time, which is pretty good for staying in bed for 24 full hours.  Most of my pictures are on my iPhone, so those will come another day.  Or they won’t…depending upon if I remember!

Anyway, this time around was so much nicer.  There are obvious reasons for that: Emma’s older, and a bit more mature.  We know what to expect.  I have back-up activities. I thought about the line-up of visitors (spacing them out so as not to over-stimulate Emma).  And the hospital is just awesome when it comes to making kids happy.  We got a visit from Raleigh, a therapy dog.  I don’t think we’ve ever had a hospital stay that didn’t include a visit from a furry friend.  They always put a smile on the kids faces!  Raleigh was no different.  And I had to laugh, because Raleigh came in just as Dr. B was finishing up (Dr. B is the head epileptologist (formerly from Mayo Clinic) who sees Emma).  And Dr. B. mentioned that the dogs always get priority over doctors.  At least he knows his place!

In the end, the seizures we thought we saw were, in fact, seizures.  Atonic, for those of you who care to know.  They didn’t see any focal seizures, but that didn’t surprise me since she only has been having them maybe once every 2 weeks.  And she had 6 electrographic seizures.  Those are the seizures you can’t see at all.  They could happen while awake or asleep.  In Emma’s case, she had 6 in her sleep.  But they were “mild” only lasting about 10 seconds.  It’s 2 more than last time, but last time she had significantly bigger electrographic seizures last time.  So, in our minds, it’s a sigh of relief.  And a “Happy Holidays and see you in 2 years, Dr. B.” kind-a thing. So, yay!  Now our Christmas vacation can truly start.

Oh yeah, except for the part when I host 19 people on Sunday for Christmas.  And I haven’t done a thing yet. Hmmm, tomorrow’s another day!

My good friend, Traci, was so sweet to bring Emma a Fancy Nancy book. Emma's reaction to Fancy Nancy was priceless! She was so excited! As you can see, she's soaking in all the words!

Emma with Sir Raleigh.

…to keep insanely busy, and…

to get sick

to have a leak in your shower UPSTAIRS

to have one child going on his first trip without you

to have the other child be admitted into the hospital for 1 or 2 nights

That’s what we’re doing tomorrow…taking Emma to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.  She will be in their epilepsy monitoring unit for 24-48 hours.  Being in that unit gets her constant EEG monitoring to watch her seizures.  Basically we want to know if the seizures have increased or decreased.  Or if they’re staying the same.  Her anxiety has been a little higher this time around.  I think it’s because she’s older and she gets that she’s going to be staying in the hospital.  Even though we’ve shown her pictures from her last EEG visit, she’s still pretty nervous.  I have new things for her to do, though, and visitors lined up.

This weekend we kept her busy while Mason went with Grandma to Napa, CA, for his Great Great Aunt Dottie’s 90th birthday!  What a treat for him!  Around here we’ve gone to the park a bunch to ride bikes and play soccer and swing on swings.  We’ve gotten hair cuts (“we” as in Mommy and Emma), went to see Tangled, which is A-Dorable!  We tried a new restaurant. We watched Frosty The Snowman.  We’ve done as much as we could do to keep her mind occupied.  I think it worked for the most part.

Anyway, before this gets too long winded, please keep Emma in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow as she gets checked into PCH.  This is very routine and “easy peasy lemon squeezy” (as she says), but she’s nervous.  And I hate coming home to an empty house at night.  Especially when one of my babies is in the hospital.

Emma getting her EEG in the spring of 2009

I promise to keep you posted!

I would absolutely LOVE to be a part of something like this some day. Back in high school, I was very involved with my high school choir. Think Glee but no cool costume changes, more classical songs, and absolutely no dancing for me (sadly I have no rhythm). Anyway, during the year, we would sing at local nursing homes, holiday events, and parks to raise money for our choir tour. So I’m used to I was used to singing in public places.  Could I do this now?  Yes.  It would take some cajones on my part, though.

Could you do something like this?