As of Friday, Stacy an I have been married for 10 years; 10 wonderful years! And do you know what we did for our anniversary? We ordered pizza and watched a movie with the girls. But, when we dated, we pretty much did the same thing. We are one exciting couple!

Today, while getting ready for church, I decided to let LizBeth wear a hat. As you can see, it took several attempts to get it just right.



Well, it turns out NikkiRoss was just dry. We changed her trach again Friday night and kept her on her mist collar all day yesterday. This morning her sats were back up and she was able to go to church. We are going to keep her on the collar unless we leave the house.

My family is coming to see us this weekend. Then they are going to take K and S back to Missouri until the 25th! I'm not sure what Stacy and I are going to do.

Please pray for LizBeth. She is either getting a cold, or just becoming dry again. She hasn't been able to keep her sats up without some help today. Other than that, she's doing great. She was little Miss Smiley today.

Tonight we had Brupper. That's Kate's word for eating breakfast for supper. It has been incredibly hot and a bit humid in the Panhandle. The girls went out to play this morning, but returned quickly. Sarah said it was too many degrees out there!

Today was an ordinary day with the Rosses. Stacy worked on his sermon. I cleaned the house. The girls cleaned their room and played. Katelyn's ear is still hurting, but she is feeling better. Elizabeth has been playing hide and seek with her HME. She will pop it off the end of her trach, set the alarms off and then we get to find it. She seems to like this little game. We wish she would play pat-a-cake.

Elizabeth and Stacy's Room

Katelyn and Sarah's Room

Their rooms are all nice and clean. So where do they sleep? Well, Lizzie sleeps in her bed, but Kate and Sarah play musical beds. They like to sleep in their sleeping bags all over this house! Oh well, it is summer!

We are home! We enjoyed the vacation, but it is always so good to come home. We have a new Decann Date... August 12th. If an earlier appt. becomes available, the doctor will move LizBeth up. Once again, the Griswalds went to the City. This time we also brought the other two girls, one with an ear infection. Our appt. was at 1:30, but we finally made it at 3:00. Turns out there are two OU Physicains Buildings on the campus. We picked the wrong one, of course. Then we walked about 57 miles through various skywalks, only to find out the two Physcian's Buildings did not connect. We backtracked the 57 skywalk miles to the parking garage. Drove our van two blocks to another parking garage and went up two flights to Lizzie's appt. Stacy took Liz in while I medicated Katelyn. The girls and I waited in the waiting room where Katelyn slept in two chairs and Sarah and I looked at a magazine.

Stacy decided to be a comedian after meeting with the doctor. He came out all serious and when I asked what he found out, he just told me to go to the elevator. There he told me the good news. The dr. said Liz's airway was a little floppy, but not enough to make him worry. He was able to find the airway three times! God is so good. We have prayed specifically for God to open the airway, and He did. Could He have opened them sooner? Absolutely. However, I am so convinced that God's timing is always perfect. In the NICU, at home, even for that doctor's appt. If we had been on time, we would have met with the doctor's assistant. But by being late, we saw the doctor. Coincidence? I think not.

We had a great time in Ada. On the last night, we had a bonfire. It was so much fun. Liz, Nana and I stayed in the house. I did venture out for the occassional smore or hot dog though.

Katelyn's Quote of the Week: Oh, Nana, you're like 80 something years old.
Sarah's Response to Katelyn's Quote: Huh-uh. Nana is like 20 something years old, aren't you Nana?

The decann was not successful on Monday. We still have our trach baby. The pulmonologist could not find the upper airway because it was collapsed. It was collapsed to the point he could not even find an opening to try and pry it open. We are scheduled to meet with an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist next Monday. He is going to perform another scope without any sedation. Hopefully, this visit will prove more successful. I'm not sure what will happen after this step.

Since our appt. is Monday, and the Princess doesn't ride too well, we decided to stay with Stacy's parents until the ENT appt. It's a lot more humid here, so Liz can do without the mist collar. Katelyn and Sarah's cousins are here to play this week too. Well, they basically alternate between the pool in the backyard and the sand in the front. We see them when it's time to eat!

Please pray for our appointment on Monday. Pray that he will find the airway and we will know what to do next.

Whoo-Hoo! It is official. LizBeth is now in her big girl bed... in her big girl room. Her new bed arrived yesterday and we assembled it today. After moving all of her equipment down the hall and to the right, she was finally ready for her move. When Stacy put her in the bed, Liz kicked and laughed and looked all around. It was precious. Now she's sleeping and Stacy is trying to get situated on the couch in their room. It's so quiet up here in the living room. I keep checking the play pen to see if Liz is in there!

Well, Science Camp is over. Katelyn loved it up to the very end. She is now teaching Sarah all about Science. Her favorite part was making the solar system with a piece of aluminum foil, 10 pieces of candy and cake icing. Pretty cool.

Katelyn's Quote of the Day: I like beef!
Sarah's Quote for the Week: It was an accident.

The last few days have been relatively uneventful. We are just counting down the days until decann!!! Liz had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. She weighs 14.12 and is almost 26" long.

Here's a qoute from Katelyn, "Elizabeth, you are more important to me than the TV."
Here's one from Sarah, "Uh, Mom, I think you're going to be angry about this."

Well, our air conditioner is up and running today, so Liz has clothes on again. Sarah and I are headed to the "blue school" to eat lunch with Katelyn.

And the Parents of the Year Award goes to... Stacy and Kelly Ross! (applause and whistles)
Yes, they forgot their oldest daughter yesterday at Science Camp. The daughter they've had the longest was left at Camp until one of the teachers called her daddy. Katelyn handled it very well. Of course, we are blaming Elizabeth as the cause. (She can't refute this charge!)

We are one tired family! After a full week of Church Camp and a full week of Elizabeth's Camp, we are still fighting to stay awake. Whew! Everyone arrived home safely Friday. They all had a great time at camp. On Saturday, we went to Wichita to meet my parents and reluctantly return Bubba to them. We met at Red Lobster and then went on to the mall for some shopping.


Stacy and LizBeth stayed home. Stacy worked on his sermon and Liz cried for her momma. (Well, maybe not. But I like to pretend she did.)

We stayed home from church Sunday because Lizzie was acting like she might be getting sick (sneezing, coughing, whining), but seems to be fine now. LizBeth is only tube fed at night. She takes two ounces from her bottle every two hours during the day. Whoo-Hoo! She had PT today and did okay when she would wake up. She wasn't too impressed with us this morning. But she did finally ROLL OVER on her side! Yay! Sarah was very proud of her.
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Katelyn started Science Camp this week. She had a blast! Nikki will hopefully be in her big girl bed by the end of the week. We are still set to head to the City on Sunday afternoon. Our appointment is at 7:30 am on Monday, June 16th. The big girls are going to their Papa and Nana's house while we are in OKC. They are excited about that. Lots of swimming and playing with their cousins planned.

So much to tell! Elizabeth did great at PT yesterday. The Vision Consultant (VC) was very impressed with her. Lizzie performed all her tricks: turning her head side to side, tracking things with her eyes, and smiling at the ladies. Whoo-Hoo! The VC stated that Liz liked to look at faces. I told her it was b/c we all held her so much and constantly talked to her!

Today a lady from our church came and got Liz and me so I could run a couple of errands. We also went out to eat. We had a great time. LizBeth did wonderful too. She woke up at the restaurant after we had finished our meal and demanded she get to eat too!

Nikki Ross is making duck sounds around her trach. It is so cute! When she tries to talk, that sound comes out. I can't wait for Stacy, the girls and Bubba to get to hear it tomorrow. Everyone is having a great time at camp. I am ready for them to come home!

Wow! LizBeth and I have accomplished so much in the past two days! She has started turning her head back and forth to look at things. (When you're holding her and when she's playing on the floor.) And the house is almost spotless (I'm using "almost" rather loosely.)

Everyone made it to camp safely. Stacy said the wind felt like a hair dryer blowing yesterday. There's a new Campground Manager this year. He has redone the cabins and planted grass! Stacy said it looked really nice.

Well, the pulse ox probes have stopped working again. Evidently, we are hard on our equipment. Lizzie is doing just fine on the apnea monitor though. PT comes tomorrow with the vision consultant. Hopefully, LizBeth will be awake and ready to play.

Well one room and one closet down. Let's see... six more rooms and five more closets to go! LizBeth is such a great helper. Right now we are taking a snack break. She is "talking" to her toy while trying to eat it. She's also trying so hard to pull herself up off the floor. Arms straight up - Head lifted up - Determined look. Yay LizBeth! Whew, time for a rest I think.

I spoke with her doctor today and he said we are going to give Liz her iron for one more month.

Nikki Ross (as my Dad calls her) is spending a lot more time on her mist collar. Since we've been giving her more time on it, we've not had any other problems with the trach. She has also submitted to the collar:) However, she does push it off to the side sometimes. (She still has a bit of her daddy's stubborn streak!)

We went to both services yesterday. And we were late to both. I'm confident we will get a routine down soon. Liz seems to like church, especially the music.