Staying Busy

I guess I'm overdue for writing an update. We have been so busy lately, I feel like we don't even have time to breathe!

Sierra is getting physical therapy 4 times a month, developmental delay therapy 2 times a month, and blind services 1 time a month. She is also going to the chiropractor in Austin (75 minutes away) two times a week. On top of all that, we have been doing fundraisers. Our next fundraiser will be in Burnet on Dec. 13. That will be a fun one. We are going to have an arts and crafts booth set up and sell wooden things that I made with the scroll saw and also homemade soap.

We went on a 2 day camping trip to Pedernales State park about 2 weeks ago. We took Sierra and the two dogs. We all had fun and really enjoyed it. We hope to go camping again sometime.

Yesterday, Sierra, Daisy, and I went to the swearing in of our state representative. I got to take pictures of Sierra with lots of important people so that was fun. It has been about a year since I have been able to go to any political events so it was nice to be able to do that again. I'm hoping to gradually start becoming involved again.

Here are lots of pictures from our camping trip and our trip to the capitol.

Camping

Swearing in of State Representative Ralph Sheffield

Sierra with State Representative Ralph Sheffield, State Speaker of the House Tom Craddick, Former Rep. Dianne White Delisi, and State Representative Jimmie Don Aycock

Sierra with State Senator Troy Fraser (and Mr. J. Brown)

Sierra with Justice Bob Pemberton (3rd Court of Appeals)

Sierra with U.S. Congressman John Carter
(this one was actually on election night, not at the swearing in)

Sierra with Governor Rick Perry

Accident and Vacation

I will be adding pictures to this post in a day or two.

Last week was a whirlwind of activity. We were planning on leaving on the 23rd to go to California for a week to visit Jason's parents. On Monday, Sierra and I were out doing some last minute errands when we were rear-ended. It turned out to be a 4 car accident. I won't go into details because the insurance claim is still open. Thank God neither of us were seriously hurt! Our car is in the shop right now, so we are using a rental car.

On Tuesday, we flew to San Francisco. The flight went okay but we had some issues with luggage. Our luggage didn't make it when we did. That wouldn't have been so bad, because they said they would deliver it, but the problem was that our car seat was with the luggage. They said they would lend us one. So they took us over to where they have their loaner items and pulled out an ancient 10 year old car seat that didn't look safe. FWIW, car seats expire after about 5 years. We said that there was no way we were going to put Sierra in it and that they could face major legal problems if they ever loaned that out to someone. Since we wouldn't use their car seat, they told us to wait at the airport for 3 hours till ours arrived. Finally, after asking to speak to a supervisor, they suddenly came up with a solution and found a safe car seat for her to use.

On Wednesday, we drove to Grizzly Flats to visit with some long time friends of Jason's. After a nice visit with them, we drove to Galt, to visit my KIRABO!!!! =) Kirabo is the wolfdog that I owned before Jason and I got married. I gave him to a lady in Galt, because I knew he wouldn't be happy in a house with a small backyard. It was wonderful to see him! After visiting Kirabo, we drove to Salinas.

On Thursday, Sierra got to hang out with Grandma, while Jason and I celebrated a late 2nd anniversary. We went to Monterey and Carmel. It was fun seeing the Sea Lions so close up and in the wild. Carmel is a very picturesque town with beautiful little houses. At Carmel, we ate dinner at a restaurant. We did feel rather out of our league there. Then we walked down to the ocean. We enjoyed our day very much.

On Friday morning we visited the couple that fostered Jason from 3 days old until 6 months old. This was the first time in about 21 years that Jason had seen them, so it was really neat for all of us. Friday evening we visited with some other friends.

On Saturday we went to the airshow. Sierra hated wearing the ear protection that we bought for her. She looked very cute though! She got her picture taken with one of the best aerobatics pilot in the world, Sean Tucker. I'll add the picture soon.

On Sunday, we went to church and then had a meet and greet after we got back.

On Monday morning, we went to visit some of Jason's other friends. That afternoon we took a ride in FIL's 65 mustang and then had pizza and watched movies. (Well, I fell asleep during the second movie! Opps! )

Overall, we had a good time and enjoyed seeing Jason's parents and friends. Sierra enjoyed it, except for traveling. She didn't like being held for that long and wanted to be on the floor doing her army crawl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIERRA!

Today is Sierra's 1st birthday. We went to the chiropractor today and Sierra did really well. They were so sweet and had a piece of cheesecake for her. She had a few bites of it and really liked it. :) We really didn't celebrate today. We are going to celebrate on Sunday. We'll have a little "Praise Party" for her. (If anyone wants to come, let me know!)

It is hard to believe that a year has gone by, but on the other hand, it seems like the day she was born was so long ago. I had been dreading her first birthday for a long time, because of the nightmare of memories that it holds. However, today was good. (Two days ago,the anniversary of the day that I went into labor, was rough emotionally.) Today I was just bursting with indescribable joy and so thankful for the precious blessing that God has allowed us to have!

Here is a picture from today.

Padre Island

When we went to visit my grandmother we decided to go to South Padre Island since we were already at the tip of Texas. It was Sierra's first time to go to the beach and Jason's first time on a Texas beach (he is used to Florida and California). We really enjoyed it and are talking about going more often.

Please Pray for Sierra's Great Grandmother

Please pray for my grandmother (Sierra's great grandmother). She is going to be having triple bypass surgery starting at 7:30 am (Sept. 4) because she has 80% blockage. It should last 4-5 hours. We made a quick weekend trip to see her.

Benefit

The benefit today was a huge success thanks to the Elks Lodge, Kay's Motorcycle Mania, Wind & Fire, and all the other many people who made it possible and came out to support Sierra. They raise $5,336 for Sierra!

Rant

Last month Medicaid ran out for Sierra and we were denied renewal due to income. We had to pay for her Keppra (seizure medication) out of pocket. At Wal-Mart it came out to $57. We have a prescription card through insurance for Walgreens, but we were in a hurry and didn't have the time to transfer it. Yesterday I decided to go ahead and deal with having it transferred to Walgreens. I asked them how much it would be, but they said they didn't know. Today I went to pick it up, and the lady said that it was $69.69.

That is CRAZY!!!! Why does everyone have to hike up the price if you are using insurance!!! I said, "You have got to be kidding me! Am I required to buy it?" She said no, so I said that I wasn't going to. (I'm sure they weren't happy with me but seriously they should have told me the price yesterday and then it would have saved both of us time.) So then I had to call up Wal-Mart and get the prescription transferred back to them. What a pain. It's a good thing she is not on a lot of medicines...they are expensive!

Now if we could only get MDCP with Rider 28. I'm not sure if it is based on severity though....don't know if she would qualify for Rider 28.

Miscellaneous

EEG Results

Today the neurologist called with the results of Sierra's EEG. The bad news is that one side of her brain is having some spikes. The brains cells are irritated, so he wants to keep her on Keppra for now. He said that we will re-evaluate in 4-6 months. The good news is that she has not had any seizures for over 9 months now and the neurologist is going to keep her at her current dose of Keppra rather than increasing it. (We are SO much happier with this neurologist!)

Chiropractor Visits

We can't believe how much the chiropractor visits have helped Sierra! The lump that she had on her back from scoliosis has gone down immensely. We have also been working on patterning with her. We move her opposite arms and legs up and down in a crawling motion. Since her last adjustment on Monday Sierra has been pulling her knees up under her quite a bit and lifting herself up into a crawling (technically it is called creeping) position. Sierra's body temperature tends to run low. Whenever we would touch her, she felt cold to the touch even if it was a hot day. Since going to the chiropractor her body temperature seems to have improved. Now when I touch her, she feels nice and warm not cold. She has been rather vocal lately as well.

ECI

Sierra will be evaluated by ECI next month. Then she will begin receiving therapy.

Elks Lodge Benefit

The Elks Lodge Benefit for Sierra is this Saturday from 11:00-5:00. There will be BBQ plates for $5. All the food was donated! They have been so generous! The auction starts at 2:30. Some really great items have been donated. There is beautiful antique furniture, rustic furniture, a 5 night vacation to Colorado, and lots of other great things. People have been so supportive! We are overwhelmed with how kind everyone has been! Oh yeah, there will also be Karaoke music, that should be fun.

Newspaper Interview

We wrote up an ad for the benefit to put in the local paper. We submitted it to the section for garage sales. The newspaper people called up and told us that they could not put it in that section (they put it in the appropriate section). They said that they wanted to do a story on the benefit and on us! We will be going in for an interview on Thursday.

Pictures

Here is a picture of Sierra's first time in the pool. It was at the hotel in San Antonio last month. Somehow I managed to lose her swimsuit so that is why she is wearing a onesie.

We had another chiropractor appointment in Austin today.

Catching up on sleep with her uncle.