Things are Great!

We had a great 4th of July.  Wish we could have all been together as a family, but we tried our best to have fun.  Jason and Megan celebrated in Oregon and the rest of the kids and I celebrate here in California.  We went to a fun brunch hosted by members of our church, then made home made ice cream in sandwich bags.  We walked to downtown Palo Alto and then watched the fireworks from the parking garage across the street at the mall.

Jason and Megan attended our traditional 4th of July activities in Haines.  Megan was ecstatic over the 4th of July breakfast.  Apparently it has been awhile since she had a real breakfast. The Haines parade and pit BBQ then took tickets at the Haines rodeo.  Finished the day off with dinner at Uncle Allen's.  Who are we kidding, it was a rough 4th of July.  We don't care where we celebrate it, it is just funner when we are all together.

Sierra is doing great.  Really not a lot to report.  One of the immunosuppressive drugs is Prograf.  They want her levels to be between 10 and 12.  She had a blood draw yesterday and it was 22 (just a LITTLE bit too high).  So we are readjusting her doses and she will do another blood draw tomorrow during biopsy.  Unfortunately, her kidneys are what take the beating with Prograf.  So, her kidney level was really high as well.  I imagine once we get the Prograf level down, the kidney levels will follow.  This is all really boring I am sure.  It just goes to show that we have nothing exciting to report (which we are happy about).  

A funny story about Sierra, on these steroids, her appetite is VERY healthy, to say the least.  She will eat 5-6 meals a day.  The other morning I woke up at 5 AM.  I noticed that Sierra was not in her bed, nor was she in the bathroom.  I called out her name, after a bit of a pause, she poked her face in the bedroom door that is attached to the kitchen.  When I asked her what she was doing, she said, "I am eating crackers.  I was craving crackers."  I do believe, this is the first time in her almost 16 years, she has ever gotten up, early in the morning, to eat. It was pretty funny.  She is starting to get her prednisone cheeks, but is embarrassed by them.  So I haven't gotten a real good picture of them yet.  I need to be a little more sly.

Yesterday, we had a fun walk to "Cream." A delicious ice cream store in downtown Palo Alto.  They take freshly baked cookies and put ice cream in the middle to make sandwiches.  Very good!! We went with The Blanchards and a friend Angie. We have made good friends with these families.  We are so glad they are here. Both Angie and Katie Blanchard have babies in the hospital.  Katie's is almost a month old and had to have heart surgery, but  is doing great.  They are from Seattle.  Angie has a 1 year old that was born with some heart issues as well.  She is from Idaho Falls.

Both Sierra and Lindsey will have biopsies tomorrow.  Lindsey's will be her annual, where they look at the coronary arteries of her heart.  Clinic on Friday, where we will ask the doctors what the earliest is that they will let us go home if Sierra continues to do so well.  Some fun pictures of the 4th and what I could get of Sierra.

This is Mr. Peery, who hosted the 4th of July party.  Lots of fun. 

Our walk to Pizza My Heart on the 4th  

Our front row seats of the parking structure for the fireworks. You can see them in the back ground.  Our friend Ty Blanchard came with us. 

The kids Ty and Alex finishing up the last show.  Yes we did wash and sanitize the blankets after. 

An attempt to take a picture of Sierra's cheeks.  More to come. 

Everyone with our "feast" at Cream.