Scooby Snack Update!!

So, Reba asked what did Leo think. Leo thought at the first opportunity that they looked yummy. Hannah was holding Speckles yesterday morning and lunged at her and got her. His tooth must have hit her eye just right (... or maybe that's just wrong) and her eye popped out!!

After a few hours of wondering do we cut it off - leave it hanging - and consulting ER doctors and finally a vet (one of Hannah & Abe's friends mom is a vet) and she was going to take her in today and gas her and cut it off and stitch her eye shut - but thought this morning that she looked really good and we should leave well enough alone. We are going to let it shrivel up like an umbilical cord and fall off.

Hannah want's to know if anyone can sew a little hamster eye patch?

Meet Jen & Speckles

We have two new members of our family. Jen & Speckles

We have been fighting getting hamsters for quite sometime - there's something to be said about how kids are like wind & water - that after a time - they can wear you down!

Hannah did use her own money (We were not paying for rodents that we didn't want to begin with). So, she had won some tickets to a Britney Spears concert and when she found out that they cost $125 each!! She wasted no time having me find someone to purchase them. Suddenly she had all the money she needed for her new wards (dwarf hamsters). I am just hoping that they really are both females!! If not - well I hope you all have room in your hearts for new companions too!

One of our main concerns was the fact that Katie is a HUGE squirrel chaser!! What more could she ask for from the family than tasty morsels brought home for her!! I think she is truly smiling in this picture!! (THANKS MOM!!)

But, she was surprisingly gentle with them. Hannah even had Sepckles crawling on her belly at one point. Not sure I would leave her home to critter-sit for me - but I don't feel as if we purchased pill pockets (you know... little treats you use to give your dog medicine!! LOL)

But actually they are kind of cute watching them burrow around and hide food.

Blogs, Twitter and now Facebook.....

So first came the "Blog" and I will admit that we are not faithful bloggers - we try - but, oh well there you have it. I was hoping that Nate, now working nights, would kind of 'take over' and blog at least a little (although in his defense - he has been helping train a new tech the past few weeks). So, maybe he will see this and now step up (at least a little).

We both do "Twitter" Nate is 'mastrnater' and I am "zenfrogg' (if you tweet and care to follow)- our updates aren't much - but i do like following some things, currently fans of Big Brother 11 on CBS, and I love getting all the updates from the people that tweet about the live feeds that you can subscribe to - really - 24 feeds - just tweet 140 characters about it to me - and I will be living the life your not......just don't stop tweeting about it please!!

So the newest thing is FACEBOOK - ok - there is a lot going on here. I signed up for it over a year ago - only because a friend had a baby and wanted to see some pics of the cute little guy. And then promptly forgot about it. I would maybe post/ck that page once every four months or so... every now and then would get a random email - "so and so wants to be your friend".....hmmmm I'm having enough trouble keeping up with the blog.... So, Nate did one because, well, I don't know why - but then he started getting requests and so I started looking at mine a little more and actually finding people that I haven't thought about but fleetingly through the years - and found that it's kind of nice to see how they are doing and where they are.... so no promises - but we will see....

Photograpic evidence that Hannah has a brain!!

Okay, so this is the first image as it is coming down from the top of her skull - we liked this one because we were able to tell Hannah that she had a very small brain (LOL!!) just kidding

This one is a little further down, showing her the full size of her very LARGE brain!!

Now, this one is cool, because you can see her eyes.... and the very itsy, bitsy dot on the left (but right) eye is the one that scared us!!! But it's all good.

So, I did a little research on the drusen and what I understand is that the blind spots that it may cause (in almost 75% of cases of drusen) is peripheral blindness and there are special tests that they will do as she gets older to see how bad the blind spots are. But for now we are grateful it's not a tumor and we will take the blindspots!!

Enjoy the brains!!

Scary Days....

Hannah, Nate & I were all due for eye exams and I had made appts for the three of us at LensCrafters - nothing special needed - just an exam and new glasses for, at the very least, Nate and myself.

Nate, now working nights, decided that he would take Hannah up on Wed afternoon so that we could go together on Saturday and be able to go without the kids (much easier to pick out new frames when not having to deal with restless kids....)

Now, the optometrist there, after looking at Hannah's eyes, diagnosed her with "papilledema" and said that we should take her to see an ophthalmologist and that there might be a CT or MRI ordered. Hmmmmm, sounds ominous. And, as much as I like the internet - it can be a dangerous thing in supplying too much information. Papilledema is inflammation of the optical nerve. Papilledema secondary to "something" else. The #1 "something" else is a brain tumor. YIKES!!!

First thing Thursday I'm on the phone with ophthalmologist!! They got her in that afternoon. Dr. Miller was great and said after doing an exam that he thought that it was not the correct diagnosis. That there was something there, but he wasn't convinced that it was papiledema. He also said that her left eye looked fine, but her right eye was a little off. A most peoples optic nerves have a cup-like shape to them, Hannah's right one is flat. This could be normal, but it could be caused by something as well. He wanted to do the CT just to be safe sure and to give us peace of mind. (We wanted peace of mind!!!) The CT was sched for 4:00 on Friday. But we felt much better upon leaving the office.

CT on Friday was rather uneventful and maybe took 10 minutes for the actual test to be performed.

Now, as I work in a Dr's office, we have access to the films from the local imaging company's around, I was able to look for the report. There was nothing there on Saturday morning. Saturday evening, Hannah wanted to "see" her brain. So, we went to the office Saturday night to look at her brain (and see if the report was there!!!) Alas, there was no report, but there was a brain!! As we scrolled through the images, we noticed that there was a 17mm "dot" behind her right eye measured out by the radiologist. YIKES (again)!!!

No report on Sunday either....... just wait and try not to freak (damned near impossible!!)

Monday, Dr. Miller calls at like 8:30 in the morning and first thing says "Good news!! No tumor!! (YAY!!!) What she does have is Optic Nerve Head Drusen on both eyes. " He said it's kind of like "warts". Calcification's really. There is no treatment currently for this and most likely will not cause any problems. Possibly some "blind spots" in the future, but that's not 100% for sure. He wanted to see her in six months, and wanted to make sure that we/she knows what it is, as in the future, when she has eye exams, he said that any eye Dr worth a damn would be concerned and order a CT/MRI, and that would not be necessary.

Sorry it's so long, but really - how do you explain it all. Sorry we didn't tell everyone - but why share the worry when we don't know what to worry about - but now you know!! And we are a much relieved household with just a few more greys!!! We are thankful and try not to cringe too much (at least for a week) when the kids start fighting!!!

Love to you all!! (I will take pics of Hannah's brain with the cell and post them soon!!)

Summer Camp

We dropped Abe off at Camp Winona this past Sunday. It was soooo hot. The thermometer in the car on the way over:
Here's a great pic of Abe and Nate for Father's Day

This is his third summer going there and he always has a great time. And we always look forward to his notes home. (However brief they are!!) This is also his third year in the same cabin "Panther". This picture here is of his cabin mates for this year.
They post new pictures of the campers each day. If there any really great ones of Abe I will post them.

My Finger, The Light Saber

So, about two months ago I got the middle three fingers of my right hand cought in a door at work. It hurt. A lot. I couldn't say anything but one word for about five minutes and that word is not repeatable here, or anywhere else for that matter. Once I got my wits back about me I thought, "Wow, the next time the kids do that I will be a bit more sympathetic." It's been a long time since I slammed body parts in doors.

So within the next few days my middle finger turned black and really ugly. The kids teased me and wouldn't kiss it or anything.

Well, Wednesday night - the nail finally fell off.... Hannah didn't want to see it and since she's in New York - she's really missing out. So, I wanted to post a picture of it - but it's really hard to take a photo of your own right hand....and now I give you, My Finger, The Light Saber.....

(Abe likes it when you click on the pic and make it really BIG!!)

Hannah, you lucked out, we tried to take different photos in different light - and it just didn't work. Too blurry or too washed out to appreciate the nastiness of my nail bed. You will have to look at it when you get home next week!!!!