Aches and Pains

She really thinks ballet is worth it!

Cullen Willgers uses a heated rice pad to soothe her aching knees after practice at Bonnie Cokinos Dance. Tammy McKinley/The Enterprise Photo: Beaumont Enterprise 

 

Soccer Champions

Congratulations to the Mudbugs for winning the 2011 Houston Express soccer tournament!

Jane Kurtz

Jane Kurtz will be in Houston  this weekend.  She will be signing books the following dates/times/locations:   Thursday, January 27th  5 p.m. Blue Willow Book Store   Friday, January 28th 7 p.m. Memorial Barnes & Noble   Saturday, January 29th 3 p.m. Town & Country Barnes & Noble   Sunday, January 30th 12ish* DSM Ethiopian Orthodox Church

 
So who is Jane Kurtz?  Jane is the author of numerous award-winning children's books, such as Pulling the Lion's Tail, Trouble, Only a Pigeon, The Storyteller's Beads, Faraway Home, and Saba. [And yes, I have everyone of them signed.  :) ] She spent most of her childhood in Ethiopia and has based many of her books on her memories of Ethiopia, such as the ones I named above. Most recently though, she authored American Girl's Lanie and Lanie's Real Adventures.  She works with a company in Ethiopia called Ethiopia Reads which helps bring books to the children in Ethiopia.

When Life Hands You Lemons...

Make lemonaid! 

 I'm just not sure how to do that just yet.  :)  I finally took my hubby's advice on having a plantar fascia release.  I had been having problems for awhile, tried many conservative treatments, then decided to finally take the surgery route.  That was a couple of months ago, but now the pain is worse.  Not only is it still in the same area, but now I have pain in part of my foot that wasn't hurting and have paresthesia along the bottom of my foot.  So I had an MRI of my foot, and what do you know?  The radiologist apparently tells my husband that the surgery really screwed me up.  Uggh!!!  SO does anyone have any suggestions on how to make something good of this?  I don't blame my podiatrist.  He is a great doctor, and mistakes happen.  I also don't blame my hubby.  He thought this would help because it does on most people when conservative treatments fail, but my problem has been since birth.  I was born with club foot.  Now, I haven't had problems all through life.  I guess my prior gymnastics career, cheerleading, and gym work outs have caught up with me.  We'll see what another specialist says tomorrow.

Two Years Ago Today...

Two years ago today I got the most wonderful phone call from Grace that we had passed court and Maritu and Mamush were now officially part of our family!

Here's a picture of Mamush:

And Maritu:

Finally!

Yes, It's been awhile.  I guess ADD keeps me from focusing on keeping this blog updated.  But I've decided to share some news.  Mamush had PE tubes placed in his ears in October.  For those of you that know how minor this is for most children, I feel you rolling your eyes, but this was huge for us because this was his second try at tubes.  You see, his ear canals are like a preemie's.  Our local ENT sent us to a friend of his in Houston, Newton Duncan, who deals with Down's children on a daily basis.  Apparently, they also have small canals.  We thought we were going for a consult for hearing aides, but after examining Mamush, Dr. Duncan said he has dealt with smaller ears!   And now he can hear!!!  Imagine the tears that streamed down my face in the recovery room when Mamush said, "That's too loud." 

But that's not all.  Mamush has also been seeing a new pediatric endocrinologist at UTMB in Galveston.  Unlike the resident at Texas Children's Hospital, Dr. Lee has listened to our concerns.  Mamush just had an MRI of this brain a few weeks ago, and Dr. Lee said that it showed he had a very small pituitary.  So now what?  He'll have a return visit in January, and Dr. Lee will begin working on getting growth hormone approved for him.  Surely Blue Cross will see his need.  He is no where near the bottom percentile on a growth chart, he hasn't grown a centimeter in 18 mo., and we have ruled out any other possible causes.  And let me tell you how much of a trooper he is!   The anesthesiologists were commenting on how well behaved he was, and saying that they wished every child was like him.  He has made me proud, and I'm sure his bio parents would be too.

Jingle Bell Ball

Here's my beauty:

But this is really how our family rolls...