I am a Woman of Faith...(a look at our weekend)

A look at the center of the arena. We sat in our usual seats, so close that we had to look up to see the screens. Looking at the stage was much easier for us!

Wow what a great weekend! We left home Thursday night & drove to Billings. We had a winter snow warning for Thursday night/Friday day that said we were supposed to get 6-10" so it was good that we left on Thurs night. We got to Billings right about 9pm & went right to the hotel to check in. Then we went & ate dinner & then went to sleep.

The next day was Women of Faith! We got to the arena at about 9:30am to put some tickets at Will Call & then were able to sit & enjoy the conference. Here are a couple pictures from the conference. The first one is the worship team & the next one is of the great Sandy Patti!!

Here's my 2 sisters-in-law & my mother-in-law:

We had a great Friday. It was full of speakers, singers, stories, singing, comedy, tears, music, laughter, women, women, women, & lots & lots of lines! ;o)  It was fantastic.

Friday for dinner we went to the Outback with a good friend & her mom. Then headed back for the evening part of the conference.

When we got back to the hotel my mom & I started our "Gift Bag Project"!! We both brought 50 women & wanted to give them a little gift bag. Here's our adventure of making the bags from start to finish:

All layed out & read to be stuffed in the bags!

My mom - stuffing the bags with Easter grass. Then I'd put in all the goodies!

The final project!

All ready to go to the arena

Saturday was a great day. We were in the arena from 9am to 5pm. And it wasn't long enough. I always love the Women of Faith conferences. They're just amazing & always leave wanting MORE! If you are reading this & ever want any information on going to a Women of Faith conference with me, just let me know! You can also visit http://www.womenoffaith.com/.

We drove home that night & I had a great evening with my family. Cali was so excited to see me that she screamed when she saw us drive up & we could hear her from outside. Then Brooke gave me the biggest smile ever!!

It was a fantastic weekend & next year won't come fast enough!

Women of Faith

Women of Faith...oh how I love thee.....

Women of Faith is a conference, for women, that lasts 2 days & is just amazing. I mean, what else can you say about it. AMAZING is an understatement.

It's full of speakers, drama (as in a dramatist, not the bad "drama"), music, comedy, singing, girlfriends, laughing, crying, & wonderful stories. It's uplifting, fun, & a time you'll never forget.

My mom & I started going back sometime around 1996. It was held at a church & we went in Denver, CO. There was a group of 4 ladies who spoke for 2 days. (Marilyn Meberg, Pasty Clairmont, Luci Swindoll, & Barbara Johnson) It was just hilarious.

Then we found out they were touring!! Every. Single. Year!!!!!!! So we started going every year, alternating between Billings & Spokane. My mom started telling other people about it & eventually had about 50 ladies that came every year. Usually when it was in Billings (about 2 hours from us) we'd have a group of 100. And then we could sometimes get 50 when we went to Spokane. We were so excited when they decided to go to Billings every year so we can get a big group of people together to go.

It's just a nice, fun, girls weekend! We usually leave Thursday night, get to Billings, have dinner, stay the night, go to the conference Friday, have a break Friday afternoon (in which we usually shop!), eat dinner, have the rest of the conference Friday night, stay the night, go to the conference Saturday, get done around 5pm, eat dinner, & then head home! Whew!!!!!! It's fast-paced, but SUCH a great time.

Even though my girls are constantly in the back of my mind, it's SO nice only having myself to worry about...even if it is just for 2 days!!! :o)

And why, you may ask, am I posting this about Women of Faith? Because it's this weekend!!!!!!!!! When I get off work I'm going home, packing real quick, & then my mom is coming to get me so we can head to Billings. I'm super excited. But we just got home from Chicago so it's a bit weird leaving again. But we'll be back Sat night...& I'll post pictures from our fantastic weekend!!!

For more info on Women of Faith visit: http://www.womenoffaith.com/

Another cookbook update

Well here's another cookbook update:

If I was going to be home tomorrow I'd have the proof in my hand!!! Yes, that's right, it's on it's way here as we "speak"! I fully paid for half my order on Monday & Tuesday, then got the confirmation on Wednesday that the proof was being mailed to me. YAY!!!!!

Unfortunately though, I won't be here tomorrow or Saturday so I won't be able to see it until I get home late Saturday night. But that'll give me just enough time to check it over real quick & get it back in the mail to them on Monday (which will put the ship date even closer).

So that's that!! Yippie...it's coming faster than we thought!!!!!!!

Brooklyn's Best Cookbook Volume 2 Update

I finally got all the recipes proofed & submitted them 3/31...the very last day possible to get the small discount that was available for March. All book prices increase as of 4/1 so I HAD to get them in in March. (I'd mailed the entire book in before we left for Chicago, but the recipes still needed to be proofed online.)

I heard from the company today. They said that they could tell I'd done a book before cause it was all nice & organized! :o)  LOL That's good! I gave them the down payment so now they've officially started on the book. (Unfortunately, even though they had the book a few weeks ago, they couldn't start until they had the recipes as well.)  :(

The ship date as of now is May 19th. But I've never had an experience with them where they meet their ship date...they're always quite a few days before that. So I bet by the first week of May I'll have the books. Anyone want to put a wager on that?! :o)

Back in the swing of things

This post is a few days late...sorry about that! So let's see...where did I leave off????

Monday was our last full day in Chicago. We had an appt in the AM to have Brooklyn's drains removed...thank goodness. She did absolutely amazing. Here she is in the waiting room:

Our little Teletubby

We got the drains removed & then got Brookie's picture with Mim.

In the car after the drains were removed!

Then we were off to the Aquarium. It was Monday so we knew it wouldn't be as crowded as Sunday was at the museum. We drove down to the aquarium & immediately hit a traffic jam. In that area is the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, & the Adler Planetarium. They call it the "museum campus"...oh & Soldier Field (where the Bears play) is right there too. So it took us a while but we ended up parking in the garage under Soldier Field. As we were walking to the aquarium we noticed the line. Actually "line" is an understatement. This was ridiculous. It was was a mad house. We were speechless. The front of the aquarium has stairs going up...& a pretty nice size staircase at that. This "line" was all the way down the stairs, out a little ways more, & around the building towards the entrance on the side of the building where the strollers/wheelchairs go. Then the stroller/wheelchair line was almost as bad. It went all the way down the sidewalk & over to the place where the taxi pick-up is. I know this really means nothing to people that haven't been there & seen how huge this place is...so you'll just have to trust me & take my word for it....these lines were an amazing sight to see. And something that we didn't want to have to stand in. Thankfully we have an annual pass so we got to go right in & up to the membership desk. It was good too cause it was sooo cold outside & that was another reason we didn't want to wait...just too cold for Brooklyn.

So we got inside & it wasn't much better. I swear they were over their capacity. Who knows though. We got our picture taken & then started exploring. Our first stop was the shark reef that we didn't see when we were there in January. Then we went down to the penguins, who were taking a vacation in January so we didn't get to see them either. Pretty much...once we were done with both of those, we left! It was just too busy.

From there we decided to go back to the hotel to pack up before dinner time. We got everything packed & then walked our suitcases down to the weight room to weigh them! LOL Yup we sure did! We were right at the max so we hoped we'd be ok.

Then it was dinner time. We went to the Outback, our favorite place. Brooklyn, however, wasn't in it. She sat like this almost the entire meal:

Apparently we weren't exciting enough for her! But once our food came she turned around a time or two to pose for a picture.

The next day was Tuesday & that means we had a countdown until we got to see Cali! We missed her a lot. :) 

We don't know what this business does, but someday we're going to walk in & ask! It's literally right across the street from our hotel!!

We packed up, checked out of our home-away-from-home (about 10:30am), headed to the car rental return, returned our car extremely quickly (about 11am), hopped on the waiting shuttle (about 11:05am), got to the airport (about 11:10am), went to the Delta counter, checked in, headed to security (about 11:30am), & got through security (about 11:35am). YES...you read that right....it literally took us 5 mins, or less, to get through security. It was amazing. I even told them that I had 2 bottles, 2 containers of food, & tons of medication in the bag. She said that the machine had only alerted them to one bottle, so that's all they checked. (They did end up grabbing the 2nd bottle & checking it just cause I'd told them about it.) Yeah, compare THAT to the Billings experience we had just 10 days prior. I'd SO much rather go through a huge airport...it's sooo much quicker!

Anyways, we got through security, got a coffee, & made our way to the gate. We got to our gate right at about 11:45am...so we had about an hour and 20 mins before we boarded. Apparently there were 4 WWE wrestlers at our gate, but I couldn't tell you who in the world they were!!!

The first flight was long. We went from O'Hare to Salt Lake City. We were in the first seats behind first class, but there wasn't a bulkhead...we were actually able to put our stuff under the first class seats. I was sitting in my seat & stretched out my foot, pointed it, & STILL couldn't touch the seat with my toes. Yes, I know I'm short, but that's still a long ways away from our seats. It was actually quite nice because once we were in the air we could put Brooklyn down on the ground & she could walk all around in front of us. She loved getting down & walking...& not being held the entire flight. It was about a 3 1/2 hr flight if I remember right. Here she is playing with a cup:

We had to hurry to our next plane cause we had just about an hour lay-over. We went to a back corner so Brooke could run around & we could feed her. Then they called our flight so we got in line to board. I laughed once I saw who was a few people ahead of us in line...it was the parents of one of my oldest friends!! Jamie was my first best friend here in Lewistown & we were at each other's houses all the time. We have been great friends since 5th grade so I know her parents, Deb & Gary, quite well. When we got on the plane I yelled back to them (we were in row #2 & they were somewhere around #8) & said that we wished they were closer to us so we could pass Brooke back & forth!!! Once everyone was on the plane I ran back with her so they could see how she looked. It was pretty neat seeing them on our flight. :)

We landed safely, got our bags, loaded in the car, & headed to Target to get Cali's "big present"...her new carseat. They had ONE left of the one I wanted...YAY! We got that, the movie Tangled, & some new towels, which we were in desperate need of, & then ran through Taco Bell drive-thru, & headed right home to see Cali. Her & my mom were sitting on the garage stairs when we opened the garage door. She was so excited to see us! Ahhhhh I loved it! She looked at Brooke for a minute but didn't seem bothered by her lack of bubbles or nevus. (LOL The next day, however, she came up to us out of the blue & said "Brookie bubbles???" I told her that we had them taken out. Then she just said OK & walked away.) She was very excited to see her new seat. I put it together for her & she sat in it the rest of the night!!

We got home late Tuesday night & Cali goes to day care on Wed & Thurs. I knew I'd hate that she had to go just a few hours after we got home. But we tried it anyways. She got up & I went in to get her dressed....but boy she wasn't having any of that! It was the biggest fight we've ever had getting her dressed. I wasn't about to keep putting her through that so I just held her close & asked if she wanted to stay home with mommy & Brookie. And of course she said yes. So we changed her clothes & got her in some jammies, like mommy was wearing, & we just had a fun day together!! Here's Brooke & Cali playing in their tunnel:

Later that day Cali was sick of being in the house so since my mom was still there I decided to take her for a little drive in the car with her brand new seat! Here she is in her jammies with her new Tangled DVD...you can't tell but she was VERY excited!!!

And here's Brooklyn later that day. I think she wanted to go somewhere.....

The next day (Thursday) Cali was very excited about going back to play with her friends at day care. So we got up & I took her in. Then Brooklyn & I went up to my work so they all could see her. They were all in awe!!! Then we came home & unpacked our stuff & waited for Dustin's mom to get Cali & bring her home.

Last night was opening day of baseball so my parents & brothers came over with dinner & we watched the Dodgers beat the Giants!! (And they beat them tonight too!!!)

I go back to work on Monday so life will return to "normal" next week. I'm excited to take Brooklyn to church on Sunday so people can see how much nevus Dr. Bauer was able to remove. :)  And life will return to normal...for 3 months at least. Then we have to turn back into germ-o-phobes about a month before the next surgery. I got the date moved up from the 11th to 8th of August...so right after the 4th of July we'll be germ-o-phobes again. :(  Definitely not looking forward to that again. But until then...we'll enjoy having our lives back!

OUR NEW-LOOKING BROOKLYN!!!!!!!!!

I'd said I wasn't going to post pictures of Brookie until after she healed a little bit, but I had so many requests to see her that I just went ahead & posted some to Facebook. So if I did them there, I have to do it here too! :)

First off...a couple "before" pictures:

The morning of the first surgery

With the expanders in... And wacky nevus hair!!

 

 With the expanders in again. This one you can see them both pretty good...as well as the entire nevus.

 The morning of the 2nd surgery...just this past Thursday.

These next 3 are at the doctor's office on Friday...it was the very first time we got to see the results.

These last 3 are from last night. Brooke was itching her head so we let her go without the dressing for a few minutes. She loved it so much that she fell asleep!!!! So we re-dressed her head while she was asleep! :o) 

Taaa-Daaah!!! :o)

A Great Couple of Days in Chicago

Here's just a little to fill you in on what we did the last couple days.

Saturday (yesterday) we were going to go to the Museum of Science & Industry but we woke up & got going a little too late, so we decided to walk around the mall instead. First, though, we found a Post Office so we could get a couple flat-rate boxes. We ended up going to 2 & neither of them had any, so we just had to get regular boxes. (We were basically at our max weight on our way here, so with the clothes we got Cali AND all of this medical stuff for Brooklyn, we'll be over. So we're gonna mail stuff back.)

I had a 50% off coupon from The Children's Place so when we got to the mall we headed there first to get Cali a present. I told her that if she didn't have any time-out's with Oma (my mom) then daddy & I would bring her a big present. And boy does she like presents!! The biggest present that we're bringing home for her is a new carseat. Yeah, she's the type of kid that will just love it. We took Cali's seat & made it Brooklyn's...since she can now sit facing forward. So we changed them the day we left for Chicago & now that one is hers, so Cali needs a new seat. Cali also loves skirts, so The Children's Place was perfect.

After that we just walked around, ate lunch, & people-watched. From there I ran into Babies-R-Us cause Brooklyn's little snack carrier thing was dropped & broke. So I got her a new one. Then we ran by Target to get more diapers (cause we were down to just about 10), wipes, & milk. Then we grabbed a coffee & came back to the hotel.

For dinner on Friday night I ran to Portillo's. This was the place that I didn't get to go inside of when we were here in January. The food is amazing & I was told that inside was just a trip. So I said I'd go to Portillo's & bring us back food. And wow....was that place ever crazy inside!!! First off, it was a Friday so it was just packed. And second off...I'd never been inside before so I was like a lost little puppy. Let's just say it took me forever to figure out what to do. I started off in the To Go line, which I didn't know until I got to the front...there went 10 minutes. Then I found my way to the Barnelli's side of the restaurant, ordered my food, & waited about 15 mins for my food. Then I had to go to the Portillo's side to get Dustin's stuff, which I did much quicker. But by the time I got to the car my phone was ringing. It was Dustin asking what was taking me so long....LOL I'd been gone an hour! Oops. Needless to say, we got our food & it was delicious. So Saturday night we had leftovers!!

Today (Sunday) we purposefully got up earlier than usual so we could go to the Museum of Science & Industry. Supposedly it's the biggest science museum in the Western Hemisphere...that's pretty cool! Here is a bad picture of the front...I took it when I was stopped at a light!

We probably should have thought twice about going on a weekend, but how bad could it be, right? HA!! I should have taken a picture of all the people when we got there. It was a crazy mad house zoo. There were people everywhere. Everywhere you looked. It was just crazy. Not a place for Dustin...but he's getting better! If I'd have brought him here when he first got out of the USMC it'd have been a different story...but he handled it quite well...even though he kept stepping on my heels! ;o) Here's a pic of Dustin & Brooklyn in the only empty room in the whole place. It stayed empty for about 20 seconds, but Brooklyn got her run in!!

It was a pretty cool museum, I guess. I'm sure we'd have liked it better if there were fewer people. But I think we pretty much got the jist of it. Also, we did see the entire museum, so we went through it kind of fast. If we really wanted the full effect we should have taken our time in each area & really read the displays, played around with the stuff, & just enjoyed exploring. But we wanted to see the whole thing. Plus, we had Brooklyn, of course, so we couldn't stay in one place for too long. But I'd totally like to go back (on a weekday of course) to see more. My brother Mike would really like this place. Here's a good pic of the Chicago skyline on our way home from the museum:

After the museum we went to another famous pizza place in Chicago, but this one is a chain: Giordano's. They make the famous stuffed pizza. It has a thick crust, then the cheese & toppings, then another layer of crust, and THEN the sauce. We liked it, but Pizzaria Uno was definitely better. I don't think Giordano's made the pizza as good as they could have. It didn't look as good as I thought it would...& then it wasn't hot! But it still did taste good. I'd like to try another location to see if maybe we just went to a "bad" one. There's still one more pizza place/chain I'd like to try sometime: Lou Malnati's, but we'll have to do that in August when we're here. Here's the famous stuffed pizza (a SMALL one, I might add):

 Sweet little girl

Remember back to our trip here (check out our blog post called "Chicago...it's like we never left")..she has this thing for eating off the edge of the table with no hands!

Tomorrow we have a doctor's appointment to have these darn drains removed (YAY!), then we're going to the Shedd Aquarium since we have the annual passes, then we're packing up cause tomorrow is our last night here. It's gone by fast. But we're anxious to get home withour new-looking Brooklyn! We just can't wait to see Cali too! She's so excited to get her present from us...that's pretty much all she talks about when we're on the phone. She did have a time-out today with Oma, but we'll let it slide. :o)

As for now...I'm packing up a box or two so we can mail it home... then bed!

The Big Reveal!!!

Well ok...I want nothing more than to show some pictures of our "new" Brooklyn, but they are a bit "inappropriate" to show right now. Ok back up a little......

We didn't have a bad night at all last night. It was definitely worse after she had her first surgery. (But we do realize that this won't last becuase the next surgery she'll be getting an expander in again...) To say she's bounced back quick is an understatement. Exceptionally speedy is even an understatement!! Last night for about an hour she was pretty unsteady on her feet...getting used to the weight (or lack there of) on her head. But after that hour, she was back to it.

She just woke up a time or 2 in the middle of the night, which was a heck of a lot better than 15+ times for the first 3 weeks after the first surgery! We slept in very late cause after that nap we had yesterday we didn't get to bed until late. So we got up, got ready, & went to Dr. Bauer's office to have her dressing changed. This was the big reveal for us! We were sooo excited to see her without the dressing on.

And boy were we not disappointed! We saw a forehead....a FULL forehead. We saw a scalp. And we saw hundreds of stitches. There has to be 300+ stitches. They're all so incredibly small & delicate...& VERY well done. Mim, Dr. Bauer's nurse, said that probably more than half the surgery time was putting the stitches in. She said that Dr. Bauer came back to the office & told her & Susan, the other nurse, about the surgery & how well it went. And she said that he was very excited that he got 80% of the nevus!

I took 3 pictures of her new head. They are good pictures, but I'm going to restrain myself & not show them until after we get the drains out. We want to get those out, wash her head, & make it less "icky" looking. I really do want to show them, but I don't think you'll get the full effect until it's cleaned up better. However, if you can't wait, message me & I'll send a pic. :)

When we left Dr. Bauer's office we got lunch & then got myself some frozen yogurt...mmmmm. So now our only question is: what to do for dinner! ;o) 

Brooklyn hasn't stopped going ever since yesterday when she woke up. She's more active now than she was before the surgery! I'm so happy that she's back to her normal self. It's a relief to know that she can return to normal after going through something so traumatic.

More to come...

THE BUBBLES ARE NO LONGER!!!! (Surgery Day!!)

Wow what a day it has been!! Seems like 3 days ago that we were getting to the hospital. But...it was today & here's how the day went...

We had to be there at 6am because she was Dr. Bauer's first surgery of the day. We got up & were at the hospital at 6:01am. :) Here is Brooklyn when we pulled up to the hospital:

We walked in, checked in at the front desk, then went to the Ambulatory Surgery area. We were greeted by very nice nurses who directed us to the Peds room, where we got crib #4. Our main nurse was the same person we had back in January, which was nice! Surgery was just 11 weeks ago today so it was nice that they remembered us! We were told to just hang out for a little bit. Little by little the nurse would come in & have us sign a paper, or do her vitals, or take her weight, or have us change her into a gown. So we just hung out, did as we were told, & had fun taking pictures! :) Here's Brookie with daddy while we were waiting for the elevator:

She was a happy girl! We were having a good time together. An RN who was training to be an anesthesiologist came in & asked us questions. She was very nice. Then the anesthesiologist came in. She wasn't so personable! I looked right at her & she didn't even say hi. The training RN said that the anesthesiologist would ask us a bunch more questions, but she didn't. She just asked if we had any questions. I asked about the night terrors that she was having after the first surgery. She'd had them for almost a solid 3 weeks, which we were told were from the anesthesia. She said that it's not possible b/c the anesthesia is out of your system in 24 hours. Hmmmmm. Funny cause we have spoken to many people (some were medical professionals, some weren't) about this & they all said it was from the anesthesia. I still am convinced that something was messed up in her little body that caused the night terrors. I guess we'll find out in the near future if she gets them again. Oh well...who knows. But she certainly looked at me like I had 3 eyes when I asked her that question. Needless to say, I didn't get a good feeling about her at all, but what was I going to do about it?! I just prayed for Brooklyn & all the staff who were in the OR with her & trusted that she'd be ok. And of course she was. :) Here she is with her superhero cape on!

 And here's the 2 of us:

Then it was time for her to get changed into her gown & get her little bracelet on. I called it the chicken tag. That's when she realized something weird was happening. She started getting just a little bit fussy. Could have been that she was suspicious, could have been that she just wanted to walk around but we wouldn't let her with her bare feet, could have been that she was getting hungry. Who knows. Here she is in a happy moment with her cape back on...playing with her toys.

And here she is sitting with daddy just a few minutes before Dr. Bauer came in to see us. I asked him if she'll have hair on her forehead (since the expanded forehead has hair on it towards the back). He said no, it won't because he makes sure that the hairline is where it's supposed to be. ;o) He said it'd be a few hours & then he'd come out & let us know how she did.

Then the hard part came. They came to get her; so we walked with the escourt through ambulatory surgery, through the doors, around the corner, past the surgery waiting room, through heavy double doors, & down a looooong hallway. We sat in the same place that we sat while we were waiting for surgery just 11 weeks ago today, but this time it wasn't nearly as long. They took us to that spot right about 7:20am & they took her for surgery right about 7:30am. The RN training in anesthesia took her & I watched as they walked down the hall & turned the corner. In January there was a very nice nurse who worked in that holding area for surgeries & she'd seen that I pretty much had a lost look on my face...kind of like..."So now what?!" That same lady was there & she'd remembered us. She came up to us & said that it'd be a while so we should go down to the cafeteria & get some food & then wait in the waiting room. So we did just that. I just couldn't get that picture out of my head though...of this innocent little bubble girl being carried down the hall & around the corner. She didn't know what was happening. She just needed her mommy there to comfort her but I couldn't be there. And that killed me. I cried all the way to the cafeteria...until I forced myself to stop thinking of that & to just pray. I was ok after that. Like I've said...never underestimate the power of prayer!!

We went to the cafeteria but I was so NOT hungry. So we just got a small carton of whole milk for Brooke for when she got out of surgery (I'd brought my ice pack to keep the bottle cold). I wanted a coffee so we decided to go up to the cafe instead. So we went up there, got a coffee, shared a danish, & then went back to the waiting room.

We got to the waiting room just about 5 minutes after 8am & when we checked in the man said that they had called from the OR & they'd just started about 5 mins ago. So we sat & waited. Our number on the TV screen never changed....it just constantly said "In OR", so we couldn't track any progress at all. At about 10:20'ish AM Dr. Bauer came in & took us to the Consult area. He had a huge smile on his face & said that he got 80% of her nevus!!!! I think both Dustin & I were in shock cause all either of us could say was "What?! 80%?!" He kind of described what he did & where the remaining nevus is on her head. He told us where the scars are & then said that she bled less than anyone else he's ever done (for where the nevus is & what type of procedure he did)! WOW....that's good! He was impressed by the lack of bleeding & said that out of all his cases she bled the least amount. Way to go Brooke!! LOL

I asked about repigmentation. Those fellow nevus families will know what I'm talking about here. It's kind of a lengthly explanation, but basically we've heard that the scars can repigment...& can turn dark like the color of the nevus in the future. I asked him about that & he said that it'll probably not happen with Brooklyn. He had plenty of skin to work with, which he was proud of. And he said that absolutely everything went so good...so he was happy. He said that he'd see us before we left & that I could see Brooklyn soon. Oh...also... Originally he thought that the next expander would be in the scalp, but now he's probably going to put it in her forehead again...but kind of in the middle of her forehead going back towards her scalp, if that makes any sense.

So as soon as we got done talking to him we went back to the waiting room but the guy at the front had just gotten the call that it was ok that I go see her. So I grabbed her paci, her bottle, & my cell phone (so I could take pictures) & headed down the loooooooong hall. It was about 10:40am now. The hall kept going & going...I couldn't get to the end fast enough!! I had to put the stuff on again...the big white full-body paper suit & the incredibly attractive hat; & then was lead into the PACU where Brooklyn was being held by a nurse who couldn't stop telling me how beautiful she was! I sat down in the rocking chair & held her while I rocked, but she was very restless, crying, & throwing her head back. Then she'd stop. Then she'd do it again. She was almost too much for me to handle, with all the cords, IV, pulse ox, etc coming from her...plus her gown & blanket made it difficult. So after about 20 mins of this she finally settled down & they gave her a dose in her IV of an anti-inflammatory/pain med that helped her settle down for quite a while. Once I knew she was finally asleep I got out my phone & took this:

The weirdest thing was seeing her bubble-free. We were so used to seeing her with these 2 huge things coming out of her forehead & scalp...& now they're just gone!

We waited until a room opened up for her to recover in. Once that was open I sat with her in the wheelchair & they wheeled us out. Here we are sitting in the chair:

We got to our room...#2378. And she was just out. So we thought it'd be better for her to lay in the crib:

She layed there for quite a while, until the medication started to wear off. She was just a little cranky, but it wasn't anything bad. Basically she just wanted mommy to hold her. Once she was awake we were able to go home! They took her IV out, we changed her clothes, & then Dr. Bauer came in to see her. He was on his way out so he stopped in real quick to see how she was doing. She was awake, not smiling yet, but was doing good. He pulled the dressing up on her forehead just a little bit so I could her. All I can say is instant perma-grin! I was so excited. She has a forehead now! We only saw a tiny bit, but that tiny bit was the first part of a full forehead that we've ever seen! It was amazing. Once she's not as bloody & goopy I'll get a good before & after picture.

Dr. Bauer said to go in his office tomorrow to have them change the dressing, so I called his office & we'll go in at 1pm. I'm SO excited to see her without the dressings on...so we can see the magnificant work of Dr. Bauer!

We packed up our stuff & they called for a wheelchair for us again so we didn't have so much to carry. We were wheeled down to our car right around 3:40pm & off to Walgreen's we went...for her antibiotics. Here we are in the car waiting for Dustin to get her medicine.

Notice that her head is back against the headrest & she's facing to the right! That's the first time she's been able to be in that position in weeks & weeks!!

We finally got her antibiotics around 4:20pm & came back to the hotel. We were all so tired, but Brooklyn was more hungry than anything! She started out eating some yogurt melts (LOL Which I had to feed her...she wouldn't do it herself), & then moved to little snacks, then on to an entire container of her baby food! She was a hungry girl!

When they were taking her IV out she bled a lot from the site & she'd gotten a lot of blood on my pants. When we got home, Dustin asked the front desk if they happened to have any hydrogen peroxide, but they didn't. They felt horrible about us going out to get some, so they had their shuttle driver go to the store for us...just to get some hydrogen peroxide! (Hint: Cold water mixed with hydrogen peroxide takes blood out of clothes...it's amazing!) In the meantime, we all napped! We were just beat. Brooklyn fell asleep drinking a bottle so I slept with her on the couch while Dustin layed in the bed. We all fell asleep around 6:45pm & we all woke up at 8:45pm!! Must have needed the sleep....  Once we got up Dustin went down to the front desk to get the hydrogen peroxide & he came back with a huge stuffed bunny rabbit...or dog ??? (one of the two) with a Staybridge Suites bib on it...& a get-well soon card for Brooklyn!!!!! We are in love. In love with this hotel. In January they got both Zac & Brooklyn a stuffed animal. And now this! It was so sweet that we got Brooklyn & all went down to the front desk to say thanks. They were happy to see her & they wished her well. :) Seriously, if anyone is ever in the Chicago area & needs a place to stay, the Staybridge Suites in Lincolnshire, IL is amazing!

We were starving by this point so we heated up the last 2 pieces of our Pizzaria Uno & ate that. Brooklyn decided she wanted to try out walking, so she did! She got off the couch & took a few very wobbly steps, then just went for it. She hasn't fallen...yet. But she's doing sooooo good. It's night & day from the first surgery. She's just amazing! She also has been grabbing at the back of her head, where her scalp expander was, but it's gone! She started shaking her head back & forth cause it's so light, too. :o) Here she is standing by the table:

She still has both drains & the big head dressing. We are keeping up with the Ibuprofen/Tylenol/Gas Drops/Antibiotic/Drain Changes every 4 hours. The drains were last changed in the hospital, right around 3:30pm; then I changed them again tonight at about 10pm (much later than I was supposed to), but there was NOTHING but ONE drop in the left drain & just about 1cc in the right drain. At this rate, we won't be travelling home with drains!!! (That was one thing that we were NOT looking forward to!)

So that's that. It's late; Brooklyn's asleep; I'm tired; Dustin's tired...we're going to bed. More to come tomorrow!! Thank you to everyone for all the many thoughts & prayers. We appreciate it all!

6 WHAT?!

Surgery is at Highland Park Hospital in Highland Park, IL. Their policy is that they call the patient the night before to let them know when they need to check in. So we were waiting for "the call" when I looked at my phone & noticed that I had a message. I checked it & a lady with a very strong accent came on & said that we had to be there at 6am. WHAT?! SIX O'CLOCK AM?!

But then I thought I heard the lady say 7am, so I wanted to call them & make sure. I had to leave a message, but I got a call back pretty quickly. And yes, sure enough, surgery is at 7:30am so we have to be there at 6am.

No milk or food after 1am; clear liquids allowed until 5am; then nothing until after surgery.

The bags are packed, Dustin's asleep, Brooklyn's asleep...& I'm headed there, IF I can even sleep.

This surgery is different. I know what to expect. However, this surgery will be much longer than the first one. And this surgery...believe it or not...I'm actually excited for. Well I'm not excited FOR the surgery, I'm excited for the OUTCOME. This will be the very first time that I will be able to see Brooklyn with a full forehead! That's enough said right there. This whole journey was started because we wanted to remove her nevus. And as of tomorrow, some of her nevus will be removed. We are finally seeing a result....and that's just plain ole exciting. :o)

THANK YOU for your thoughts and, more importantly, for your prayers. They are very much appreciated. We'll post more when we can...but for now, we have to be at the hospital in 7 hours so I'm gonna go enjoy these hours with my bubble girl, cause after tonight...the bubbles will be no longer!!!!!

Enjoying her lamby