Chicago Surgery Trip, Part 3: The next few days

Over the next few days in Chicago we were pretty much wasting time until surgery. Brooke has another pre-op appt appointment with Dr. Bauer on Thursday so we're doing fun stuff until then (& then after that & until we have surgery). So we did fun stuff!!

We went miniature golfing...

...but it was WAY too hot to be outside for any lengthy period of time, so we just did 9 holes & called it quits. We all went, but we had an addition this time!! Zoie got to come with us! Zoie is the daughter of one of the families from AZ. Remember the Moller's? They stayed next door to us for our long January trip & Zoie & Cali got along so great. Their son, Zac, had his surgery this day so we brought Zoie along with us for the day!

Cali & Zoie

We had a breakdown at Kohl's...

...because I wouldn't let Cali walk around in 4" heels. Yeah seriously. She saw them & wanted to buy them but I wouldn't let her. I know...I'm a meanie.

We went to a Cubs game...

...but just for the record...I'm not a fan of the team, just a fan of the 2nd oldest stadium in the country. (GO DODGERS!!) As many of you know, my dad is a pastor. Well every single vacation/trip we go on, he gets called back to do a funeral, or see someone who is dying, or something!! This trip was no exception. He had to fly back home in the middle of our vacation to do a baptism. So he left on Saturday & came back Monday (thanks to my mom's frequent flyer points!) This Cubs game was on Saturday & he was bummed that he was going to miss it.... So my parents & brothers got tickets to the game on Friday so they could all go. Well because my mom already went to the game on Friday she said that she'd stay back at the hotel with Mike & the girls so Dustin, Curtis, & I could go alone &  have a nice relaxing day at the game. It was wonderful, to say the least. :o)

Wrigley Field

For those of you who haven't been to Wrigley before, notice the bleachers on TOP of the buildings more towards the right in this picture. I checked their website & the seats run over $100/game!! Yikes!

Parking is obviously horrific in Chicago so the locals thought of an ingenious way to make a few thousand dollars a season: they "rent" out their own parking spaces for the game. So we parked in someone elses garage for a few hours. (At least we were in my parent's car so if they closed the door on us it'd have been ok!!! LOL)

Probably the best part about the Cubs game was all the movie lines that Curt & I threw out there. Our whole family loves the movie "Rookie of the Year" & we were throwing lines out all day. It was classic! "We're goin to a Cubs game!"

Merilee Vance, RN, BSN

That's right folks...I've officially completed my last class & I have my Bachelor's in Nursing! :D

The school I graduated nursing from in 2007 is a 2 year Associates program. So if you want to go on further for your Bachelor's you have to do it all online, which is what I did. It takes 4 consecutive semesters if you go full-time...so why not?!

I started in the Fall of 2009 but learned I had one more class that I was missing for my Gen Ed, which had nothing to do with nursing. It was Native Cultures of North America. Seriously. So after my 4 semesters of nursing & my last 2 electives (and after taking off last semester cause of Brooke's surgeries in January & March) I took this Indian class for the past 4 weeks. It was a semester class crammed into 4 weeks so it was VERY intense, but I finished it & passed it with an A! YAY!!!

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, CURTIS!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CURT!!!

Wow, I can't believe Curtis is 18...

We all actually slept through the minute he was born today (8:22am MST on 8/3/93) so we missed the actual crossing-over from 17 to 18, but enjoyed it when he woke up & was actually officially 18 years old! :o)  LOL

We started out the day going to Navy Pier (see other post for pics) & then went to the White Sox game. Curt's goal in life is to go to every major league ball park in the country. He already has several under his belt; actually I think he has been to more parks than he hasn't been to. For Christmas last year we got him a framed poster with a map of the country & all the ball parks on it. Then he puts a pin in the parks that he goes to, to keep track. So he needed to go to both in Chicago...and that's just what we did.

Curt & Dustin waiting for my parents to show up. We got separated (we have the GPS & they don't) so it took them a while to find us!

Cellular field was beautiful. Very new & very nice! The staff was amazing...soooo nice & friendly to everyone. They gave Cali & Brooklyn a "First Game" certificate:

And they even called the caterer to get us milk when the concession stands didn't have any. I was pretty impressed with them.

Here's a view of the field

As I mentioned earlier, we went on Curt's 18th birthday. I wanted to do something HUGE for him so I thought, what better present for a huge baseball fanatic than to have a Happy Birthday message on the field's scoreboard?! It took my parents & I a long time to come up with something cute & more interesting than the typical "Happy 18th Birthday Curtis", & we almost missed the deadline, but it was worth the wait. My dad came up with "With 18 in the books, he's one brand new Inning" & then I added the boring typical "Happy 18th Birthday, Curtis" at the end so that he would be sure that the message was for him. (For those of you that don't know...Curt's middle name is Inning. He's named after the 1st baseman on my dad's imaginary baseball team: Curtis Lemay Inning. So it just fits that he loves baseball as much as he does.)

So here's his scoreboard message!!

My mom & I had this elaborate plan to take pictures of the board AND of his face when he saw it for the first time. Mom was going to take a picture of the scoreboard & I was going to take a picture of his face. I was so concerned/worried about HER messing up the picture that I was the one who messed it up. Figures. I zoomed in as far as I could go & I got the scoreboard picture & then totally forgot to zoom OUT....so I got a SUPER close-up of his face. See what I mean????......

I think he was more shocked than anything to see a scoreboard message just for him!!

So we finished enjoying the game & then went back to the hotel to have cake. We didn't get back to the hotel until about midnight (or maybe even later) so it was a quick little party for him, but was fun none-the-less! 

Curt with his baseball cake, of course!

And Mike being silly with the frosting. (And yes, that's Cali asleep in bed in the background!)

So Happy 18 to Curt...next it's time for him to get his license!!! ;o)



Chicago Surgery Trip, Part 2: The First Days in Chicago

Tuesday was our first full day in Chicago so it was a pretty relaxing day of a doctor's appt, the mall, & dinner. That was it! We got to "our" mall, the one that's the closest to us that we've been to numerous times before. What's the first thing to do when we get to the mall?! Why...the Hurricane Simulator, of course! Well that's what Mike thought anyways...so here he is!

Next on the mall agenda: the train

And then the kids play area. Notice Cali ON the frog & Brooklyn all the way in the background (kind of in front of Cali, in her pink dress) playing it safe with the little wall wheel!

 Then the tunnel..."You can't find me, Uncle Mike!!"

The next day was Navy Pier (and Curt's 18th birthday, of course!) (See next blog post for that one!) We got there, ate, then rode on the famous Ferris Wheel.

Uncle Mike with his nieces on the Ferris Wheel

 My mom & me

 Curt & Mom

Curt & Me

Cali on the Thomas train. She rode this when we were here in January, except it was inside (thank goodness), & she just loved it. This time she rode it twice with Uncle Mike.

Sitting down in the shade for a bit. It was a hot day & we needed to rest. This is one of my favorite pictures of Cali...& I took it upsidedown! I could flip it but I think it's cute how it is!

And of course, whenever Cali gets her picture taken she always has to do an "eyes closed" picture! So here's her "eyes closed mama!" picture!!!

And this one I just couldn't leave out. Brooke was just getting ready to go swimming when she found Cali's boots. I told her to get some shoes on....so she did! LOL

We had a good couple of days! Nothing like having a forced vacation...

Chicago Surgery Trip, Part 1: The Drive

Well it's here. Surgery #3 has come. To refresh everyone's memory...

One "round" is considered 2 surgeries...putting in the expanders & then taking them out. We need 2 rounds plus a final "fix-it" surgery. Surgery #1 was putting in the 2 tissue expanders. That surgery was 1/6/11. She had the 2 forehead/scalp expanders.

11 weeks later we had surgery #2 (3/24/11), where Dr. Bauer removed the expanders & was miraculously able to remove 80% of Brooklyn's nevus! Then we got a much-needed 4 month waiting/resting period.

So surgery #3 is the beginning of round #2, where Dr. Bauer will insert another tissue expander (this time though, she'll only have 1 instead of 2) & I'll fill her expander, weekly, with saline for 11 weeks. Then in surgery #4, which will be on 10/27/11, Dr. Bauer will remove that expander & the remaining 20% of her nevus. After 19 1/2 months she'll be nevus free...for the first time in her little life!!! But for now...we have to get to Chicago!

We decided to leave on Saturday, July 30th for Chicago. This was a "special" trip this time because this was the only trip, out of 5 trips, that we'll be there in nice weather. How on earth I planned it that way, I have no idea! I mean, think about it: January...crappy weather; March...crappy weather; August...awesome weather; October...getting cold, possibly snow; & Feb/March...crappy weather! COME ON!!! For someone who hates the cold, I sure didn't plan this right!!!!! Anyways, lucky for me, we needed to be there early for this surgery. So after we checked in with the doc we were able to have another "forced vacation" just like we did in January. I call it a "forced vacation" because we are required to be in Chicago but we're not really doing anything between appointments, so we're "forced" to vacation! :o) Fine by me...

We ended up leaving town around 11:30am on Saturday, the 30th. Since we had to have some extra time there, my parents decided to take their annual vacation WITH us! So they came to Chicago too. It was so neat going with all 8 of us (Dustin, me, the girls, my parents, & my brothers). We followed each other the whole way to Chicago. The first night we stayed the night in Wibaux, MT. Yeah, folks, Wibaux, MT. For those of you who know MT...this is pathetic. For those of you that don't...here's the story: Wibaux, MT is like population 800. It's such a small town just about as far east of the state as you can go before crossing into ND. When we were getting close to crossing the border into ND I started checking my phone for places to stay. Originally, we wanted to make it to Bismarck, which is about 1/2 way through the state. No places to stay....NONE at ALL! So I checked Dickinson, which is about 1/3 of the way through the state. No places to stay...NONE at ALL! I did find 2 rooms available in Jamestown, which is about 2/3 of the way through the state...and about 6 hours from where we were. Not one of us were interested in being in the car until 1am, so we checked Wibaux & lo & behold...they had rooms at their one motel! They were outrageously priced for what we got, but we had to take it. So needless to say, our first day wasn't as great as we'd hoped.

Oh the sacrifices I go through being the little sister (Cali forcefully "gave" Brooke all her movies!!) 

Cali singing her "I'm Not Forgotten" song

Day #2 we woke up & I believe were on the road by 9:30'ish, which I was pretty impressed with, since I was still sooooo sick. (I got my fever back the night before when we were at dinner in the lovely town of Wibaux, then again right as we were getting to bed. I was so hot I could have fried an egg on my forehead.) Anyways, we got in to ND which was a first for me & the girls...add another state to my list!!! We drove, & drove, & drove...all the way to St. Cloud, MN, where we stopped for the night. Like I said earlier, I'm actually typing this a few weeks later so I don't remember any details, but it was pretty uneventful.

I think Brooklyn's pretty much fed up with being in the car... 

Cali will do anything to keep herself occupied!!

We got up on Day #3 & made it to our Home-Away-From-Home....The StayBridge Suites in Lincolnshire, IL at about 5'ish PM. I really do mean home-away-from-home because our hotel is seriously THE best. They have a free coffee bar, the staff has gotten to know us, we feel SO at home, they have a free coffee bar, free pool open 24 hours, free - yes FREE - laundry, free fitness center open 24 hours, oh, and did I mention a free coffee bar?! They are VERY reasonable priced for what you get. You can't beat it... Seriously...I've looked around for better deals & this is IT! Not to mention, we've gotten TONS of other families to stay there & they all love it too. This trip we got double points for our Priority Club so possibly, just possibly, our 5th & final trip's hotel may just be paid for with our points.

Home for 11 nights in room 110...

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper hotel stay if the kids didn't get to go swimming. So that's just what they did. I stayed back for a little bit to unpack while Daddy, Opa, & Uncle Curt took Mike, Cali, & Brookie swimming. Here's Cali...just loungin by the pool with her swim diaper on!!

Off to bed now because tomorrow is a doctor's appt & then fun!!!

SICK!

Brooklyn started getting sick with a small cold in her eyes on Saturday, July 23rd. I wasn't worried at all cause we had a week before we were leaving & 2 weeks & 2 days before her surgery. I KNEW she'd be better by then. Days went by & she still had it, but she didn't have anything else...JUST the goopy eyes. Poor little thing...

This is a pretty bad picture but you can see how horrible she looks, even though she's smiling for the camera!!!

We had her pre-op physical on Wednesday & guess what...I woke up sick. The little buggar gave me whatever she had. This, in turn, went right back to her & it moved from her eyes to the whole rest of her body...UGH! She also had an ear infection at her pre-op physical that I didn't even suspect! So great... Well at least she was put on antibiotics in hopes of clearing EVERYTHING up.

But as of now, the night before we leave, she's sick and she's not getting any better. Me, on the other hand... I missed my last 2 days of work because I'm so sick. I can barely sit up & type this without keeling over. I feel absolutely horrible. This is the sickest I've been in a very long time. I felt sooooo bad about missing work but seriously I looked like hell...(I know cause Dustin told me) & I felt even worse. I didn't get out of bed even ONCE until 8:30PM yesterday. Today I HAD to do homework so I forced myself to get up & do that. So why not write a blog post while I'm at it?! I had to pack too for our entire trip, which I hadn't even started on until today. What better way to spend a day sicker than a dog at home?!

Here's to a fun 3 day driving trip...

My Baseball-Playing Brother

I've never written how amazing my baseball-playing brother is. So I thought I'd take a second & let you all know.

For those of you that don't know...my brother's middle name is Inning. Yes, as in a baseball inning. My dad had an imaginary baseball team back in the day & the 1st baseman's name was Curtis Lemay Inning. So my parents named my brother Curtis Inning Cauffman. So it totally fits that he is just an amazing baseball player.

And no, I promise you, I'm not just saying that because he's my brother! Just looking at his stats you can tell that he's pretty darn great. He will be 18 next week so he plays Legion ball. We don't have a baseball team associated with the high school here so anyone that wants to play plays legion ball.

They start super early...like the middle of March & their last weekend tournaments are the last weeks of July or 1st weeks of August. They play TONS of games. Each weekend they have a double-header & then once school's out they play double-headers on the weekdays too.

They also play in numerous tournaments throughout the season. Now, I don't know the stats off the top of my head, but if I remember right, they either got 1st or 2nd place in EVERY tournament they played in. One of those is the Lewistown Annual Gjerde Tournament that lasts from Thursday through Sunday. They, of course, got 1st place in that tournament & of course, there was an MVP in each game. At the end of the tournament they announced who the whole tournament MVP was.....drum roll please.......CURTIS CAUFFMAN!!! We were soooooooo stoked, excited, happy for him! My mom was even in tears & I was holding them back cause I didn't want to look like a cry baby! ;o)  Here are a couple pictures of that...

Getting his Tournament MVP trophy

 The team congratulating him

(Oh...& he is really #11, but there was a jersey-mishap the morning of the game so he had to wear #13.)

The whole team. Curt is in the bottom row, 3rd from the left.

 A close-up of my cute little brother. Ok so he's not little anymore but he'll always be my little bruddah!! (He's the 3rd from the left on the bottom row.)

 Proud big sis & Curt

 Proud mom & dad with Curt. (And yes, folks, my dad was making that face on purpose.)

The Redbirds had a great season. At one point in their season they were undefeated for about 25 games in a row & Curt was on a 20 game hitting streak (approximately). They even beat the team TWICE that always wins state. So they were on quite the high there for a while. Unfortunately though it wasn't meant to be & they ended the season not making it to state.

The Redbirds last tournament was this past weekend where they had their district tournament. The top 2 finishers go to State. They actually lost their very first game, which was a complete shock to everone. They started winning though & they kept winning & winning & winning all the way up until the last game, which they lost. If they'd have won that game, they'd have gone to state. But they got 3rd in the District Tournament so everyone was happy with that.

For quite a long time Curt was the leader of the team in both home runs & batting average. He ended the season tied for the most home runs & was 2nd in batting average. Pretty darn impressive if you ask me! Here are a couple more pics of my awesome baseball-playing brother!

Him & a teammate warming up.

 Waiting for a pitch in his usual position, catcher.

Here's a little 4-picture play-by-play:

Up to bat, waiting for the pitch...

 Here comes the pitch...getting ready to swing!!

SWING!!!!

And RUNNNNNN!!!!!

Curt, You are the most amazing "little" brother a sister could ask for. Baseball or no baseball I love you like crazy. I'm VERY proud to be your SFAM!! ;o)

July 13, 2009...Our lives changed forever

July 13, 2009 may seem like just any other day to you...but to us, it was the day our lives would change forever. It was the day that we found out we were pregnant. I found out I was due March 8, 2010. Like with Cali, we didn't find out if we were having a boy or a girl. My pregnancy was fine, but I was consistently smaller than I should have been so instead of the regular 1 ultrasound I ended up having 4. We even saw hair in one ultrasound (which we later figured out was actually her nevus hair)!!

Here she is...just minutes old. 3/7/10 @ 2:22am  6lb4oz  19" long

Here she is with our amazing doctor, Dr. Bennett

I do need to take this minute to say an emotional, & huge, THANK YOU to our wonderful family doctor, Dr. Bennett. I have heard WAY TOO MANY TIMES of families who's children were born with a nevus & the babies are immediately taken away to the NIC-U because they don't know what's "wrong" with them; the doctor's can't identify what the nevus is. Or the doctor's say that it's cancer & the baby will die within a year. Or that the doctor's have no idea what the problem is when they see the baby with the nevus that they can't even tell the parents what this spot is on their child. How horrific for these parents! I believe that we are one of the fortunate families out there. When she put Brooklyn on my stomach immediately after she was born I noticed her nevus right away. I, however, was convinced that it was just bruising from the birth canal so I didn't even mention it. She was so covered in gunk that I hardly even noticed the slight hair on it. Once she was taken to the nursery Dr. Bennett got a good look at her & came back in & told us that she has a birthmark on her forehead. This was after hours of labor & it was about 3am so I don't think I was thinking quite straight. Later that morning when Dr. Bennett came back in, she told us that her birthmark was called a "hairy nevus" & that it'd need to be removed. I can not thank her enough for actually knowing what Brooklyn's nevus was. She saved me so many hours, so much worry, & so much internet searching time. Now, I still stressed myself out searching for nevi's on the internet months after she was born, but AT LEAST I KNEW WHAT IT WAS!!!!!! And that's all thanks to Dr. Bennett. I couldn't be more thankful for her & her knowledge.

Brooklyn - 8 days old. You can see her nevus on her right scalp/forehead.

And our precious little Brooklyn today. Just 20% of her nevus remains.

Who'd have thought on July 13, 2009, that we'd be here today?! What an amazing journey we're on!!