Kidney stones

I know it has been awhile since I have posted.....this is for several reasons.  The first one is that my camera battery has died and I can't find the charger.  I am not sure which child or which cat to blame.  I finally went online last night and found one for $5.00!!!  I ordered it and we should be back to normal soon.  The second reason I have not been posting is that Chloe was diagnosed with a kidney stone. We strained urine for two weeks with no results.  Her urologist did surgery on 9/25/08 (last Thursday) but was unable to get the stone.  It went back into the kidney and they just couldn't get a good picture of it.  The tube that runs from her bladder to her kidney is also much smaller than it should be and he couldn't get a flexible scope into her kidney to see the stone. So, he put in a stent :-(  It is basically a flexible tube that runs from inside her kidney to her bladder with curls on each end to hold it in place. It makes her back hurt, kidney and bladder spasm, feel like she has to pee all the time and basically makes her miserable. (Along with the rest of us!)  We go back on October 20th to have it taken out and hopefully the tube will have expanded enough for the doctor to get that stone out!  As if that was not enough, he also fixed two inguinal hernias by going through her belly button.  So she has three extra scars and a little bit of pain to deal with there.  We have had some long days and longer nights.  I did work this weekend and grandma watched her.  She is back at school and hopefully will make it through the whole day tomorrow.  She came home at 10:00 this morning, more because she could get away with it.  She is feeling better and hopefully this will all be over soon.  Clay is playing flag football and loving it.  He is getting to be quite a little boy and loves boy things!

Grandma and Grandpa

I believe that the doll beside Chloe looks a little like the doll in the movie "Chucky".  Those eyes!!  While Meredith and Ben were visiting we managed to get a few pictures that weren't too bad.  My children normally look like the first photo!  We wanted to get a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grandchildren...well, it is at least a picture!  No one would cooperate exactly :-)