Miami!

 

 

I am terribly ashamed that I have not updated this blog in so long. I meant to keep up with it forever and life just had other things in store for me and I just couldn't find the time. I have missed it oh so much though and I am back! I guess I should explain what we have been up to before I start backtracking and posting pictures from--wait for it.....Christmas! Gosh I am so behind I feel like I don't even know where to start so I guess I will just do a little update on all of us since it has been so long......

 

First, we have been transferred to Miami Florida! We made the 3,500 mile journey over 11 days in June and surprisingly it wasn't terrible. The coordination of it was the most stressful aspect of it. We had to travel with oxygen and racemic epinephrine for Presley and also had to stay overnight in close proximity to pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms so it really limited the number of miles we could travel in a day since only the big cities have them. Anyway, it wasn't terrible--just took a lot of planning on my part and thankfully, we had no issues except a little one in Hollywood, CA that luckily didn't require a hospital trip or even treatment so I feel very blessed. We were originally slated for Atlantic City, NJ but the nearest pediatric hospital would've been over an hour away so we were lucky to have a detailer that worked with us and allowed us to come here to Miami instead where they have one of the top hospitals--Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. We had a blast getting to see family as we passed through Texas and I have tons of pictures from our road trip that I will be adding. The girls had a fun time going to the Mexican market with Grandma and Grandpa and riding horses with Paw, and visiting Aunt Jody. We even picked up Nana in New Orleans and me and Travis had a date night on Bourbon Street. We miss San Francisco terribly but we are loving Miami and it seems like a way better fit for our family so far. It is warmer, you can actually get into the ocean without freezing so the girls love it and our living conditions are way better too since we can afford a house here with a pool. I do miss my view in San Francisco though and the gorgeous mountains and bay although San Francisco, for me, holds a lot of bad memories and it just feels so great to have a fresh start somewhere new.

 

Presley is such a sassy, bossy little thing and has the cutest little puppy dog eyes EVER (just like her Daddy by the way) that seem to be able to get her out of trouble all the time. She loves playing with Kourtney and is always the one that gets to decides how, when, and what they play and if she doesn't get her way--watch out! Hehe. She had two more respiratory distress episodes in January and again in May which is always hard. I feel like no parent should have to hear their child gasping for air and turning blue and yet I have seen it 7 times. Dr. Hardy finally decided to do a bronchoscopy to see to what extent the scar tissue was and she ended up finding a ball of scar tissue instead of an all over scarring. The ball of scar tissue (granuloma) in her day to day life does not affect her at all, but when she gets a cough or sore throat, it closes that part of the airway even more and it turns into an emergency situation. We also found that her left vocal cord is partially paralyzed which means nothing really, she just has a softer voice really (which she still can amazingly scream high pitched just like every other kid can). Her false vocal cords are even playing a role to try to round out her voice which is pretty surprising. They did a CT scan also just to make sure that it is in fact just tissue behind the granuloma and it is thankfully (I say thankfully since there are some cancers that can present the same way a granuloma can). Our new pulmonologist here in Miami is currently working with an ENT doctor and they plan to actually remove it so that this whole problem can be eliminated. The plan in San Francisco was to let her outgrow it which is good and less invasive but as of right now, Presley cannot go to preschool and neither can Kourtney in fear that she will get sick and go into respiratory distress. If it was taken out, I feel like they could be normal kids--it just makes sense but we have to wait a couple more weeks to get into the ENT doctor so we will see what he says when he has a chance to review everything.

 

 

Kourtney is my little talker! She literally never shuts up! Haha! She is always singing, dancing, or talking about something. She has a hard time adjusting to new situations and cries a lot out of frustration when we don't let her do what she wants to all the time but I feel like it is just a normal 3 year old problem. She loves her little kitty cat and takes him with her everywhere. He is getting pretty raggedy and I tried to replace him but she wasn't having it. She is now in a big girl bed and LOVES it! I will have to post a picture of their new room here in Miami that I am redoing. She is loving it so far. She is so smart--she can count to 20 and sings the ABC's and all other nursery rhyme songs like a pro. She's very inquisitive and likes to learn how things work--just like her Daddy! She and Presley both really are enjoying the little baby ducks that come to our house everyday and they love feeding them and talking to them. She's not much of a swimmer like Presley is but they both love the beach and building sandcastles. They are, officially as of today, both potty trained and I feel like if we can get Presley's issue situated that Kourtney will totally rock at preschool. She's THAT smart!

 

 

Travis continues to love what he does at work and is now an E5. They awarded him with a plaque in San Francisco before he left that is the "Swain Bolt". A bolt they named after him since he always seemed to find broken ones that needed replacing. They got tired of him always finding those kind of broken bolts that they finally just named it after him--the Swain Bolt. I thought that was pretty cool. He still hasn't reported to his station here in Miami since they were nice enough to allow him to take some time off to get situated here and allow us to get Presley's doctors lined up. He is loving having a lawn to mow and a place for a grill though and he grilled twice in one day yesterday for the Fourth of July! He also in enjoying not wearing hoodies all day everyday and we often joke that we have been wearing hoodies for 5 years since it averaged 60 degrees year round in CA.

 

 

As for me, I am loving Florida! I love the clear ocean water and just being this close to it makes me feel so much better. I have to admit that I got really depressed in San Francisco. It got hard with Presley's condition to really do much and if we did, I was worried all the time. We had fun at home, we did, but I just was having a hard time dealing with stuff that people couldn't see from the outside in. That's mainly why I am so happy to be here in Florida--I feel like San Francisco had some bad memories or triggers to bad memories that it is nice to finally close that chapter up. Don't get me wrong it has some amazing memories and I will always have a place in my heart for San Francisco but it was just time to go I felt like. Time to close that chapter of our lives and start some exciting new ones. I started making and selling children's clothes on etsy and through facebook and have found great success in it surprisingly. I named my shop Little Pink Carousel and the "pink" in the name has a secret to it--I would've chosen just "Little Carousel" but wanted some kind of way to add the letters p and k in it for the girls so I added the word pink in!  Here's my logo--I love how the little girls resemble Presley and Kourtney!

 

 

 

I am currently setting up my sewing room in the new house so that I can open my shop up again since I have currently been on a 2 month break and am itching to get back at it! I like how it allows me to sew and make heirloom pieces for P &K, take professional photographs of my creations on my precious little girls, and make some money along the way and helps me to feel like I am accomplishing something (even though I am not using my degree). I only sew during nap time and at night when I have a few hours to myself but it really is a nice soothing thing for me to do and I love to create beautiful things. Nobody really taught me how to sew either--I learned through YouTube videos!

 

Anyway, I think I will get back to unpacking boxes which is my least favorite thing to do but I am making it a point to get back into blogging and will e updating soon!