Happy 2 year birthday revised with pics/videos

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Lulee, Happy Birthday to you!!!

You are now 2 years old. It is so sweet seeing you develop and mature from a sweet little baby into an even sweeter little girl .

We love you so much!!!

Click on the arrow to play this video
2 year old birthday dinner at Red Robin

We had a finger painting birthday party at our house.
Here she is with little Alex and Ariel painting their masterpiece.

We set her play room up as an art studio. Daddy painted Tigger on one wall and I painted "Lulee's Art Studio" with a butterfly and a flower on the other wall.

SadieBug is not too old to fingerpaint. She got in and had some fun too!!!

Here we are opening presents, which by the way she would not open one single present. I had to open all of them.

Postal Madness

I have been doing really well selling items from my home on ebay. I haven't had hardly any problems worth mentioning at all. I have had really good experiences with purchasing through ebay as well. Most of Lulee's clothes are from ebay. After working retail for years and knowing the mark ups I just can't bring myself to pay full price for anything anymore.

Anyway, to get to the main reason for this post. We proudly sold an item to a gentleman in North Carolina for a whopping $11.00 plus $8.99 shipping. I had sold 6 other items as well and took them all to the post office to be mailed out. Unfortunately, the post office didn't have a box big enough for this particular item. They however were nice enough to point me in the direction of a UPS store located only a little over 12 miles from my home. Happy as a lark, I went to the UPS store thinking that I am about to complete a transaction smoothly and travel back to my humble abode. I walked in and it apparently wasn't for customers with small (big to me) items. More for commercial type stuff. They did not have a box that my item would fit in. I had even called the 1-800 number to check before going to this UPS. I went there and not only did they have a box, but they offered to pack it up for me (not mentioning that it would be a $17 and some odd change charge). After she boxed it and rang it up she said that it did not include shipping (shipping would be around $30 dollars). I was like "You've got to be kidding me!!!" (or did I say that right after she told me the charge for her simply putting it in the box and taping it with no packing materials inside???

So I couldn't very well make her take it out of the box at this point (although Hubby said he would have). I asked her if it would be cheaper to take my now big enough box back to the post office and send it. She said yes, but most of them are closing. I found one, with the help of Hubby, that stayed open later in yet a different city a few miles away. I took it there and it costs $19 and some change to ship (that was the cheapest way possible).

Also, while I was going to all these places with this awkward shaped box, my little Lulee, age 2, was trying to sleep. Somehow I managed to carry her, trying not to wake her, and carry the box around to and from these places to get it mailed. Believe it or not she stayed asleep and I was even able to take her in and out of her car seat without really disturbing her nap!!!

So, lesson learned. I will definitely be prepared next time and search for a box at grocery stores before paying to have someone lift my item and tape it up in a box.

I hope you all find the humor in this post. After feeling like one of my ovaries were going to fall out carrying both the box and sleeping child, I am now able to laugh as well. :)

Update #3 on Olivia

Another update email from Olivia's Mom:

Well, I’m officially frustrated. Yesterday we took Olivia to the pediatrician office with her allergies. While there I turned in a copy of the preliminary report from Dr. C…the doctor that said the knot “is nothing” to have in her file. The pediatrician said “oh, I know him. Let me see her eye.” He felt of her eye and then went to call and speak to Dr. C at the hospital. Dr. C wasn’t in so he spoke to another doctor who said “there’s definitely some sort of lesion there according to the scan, but I don’t know what it is.” He told the pediatrician that it didn’t look attached to the bone. Flash forward to 8:00 when we got home last night. We had a voice message from the plastic surgeon saying that she agreed with Dr. C and didn’t see anything.

This morning, I called the plastic surgeon who told me that she had received a note to call the pediatrician’s office on this finding. The pediatricians office wasn’t open yet so she called and talked to the radiologist on staff at the hospital who looked at the scans AGAIN. The plastic surgeon called me back and said this radiologist person confirmed that there was a lesion there and that there was an amendment being done to the original preliminary report stating this. They spoke and she says they are “99.9 % sure” that it’s what they call a dermoid cyst. She says that dermoid cysts attach to the bone. ??? Remember now that the doctor yesterday said it wasn’t attached to the bone. ??? Dermoid cysts are fairly common but most of them are on the outside of the eye. The surgeon said that most of the time the only reason they are removed is for cosmetic purposes. The surgeon told me “I missed it on the scans.” Tell me that’s supposed to make us feel good. On the day that she originally saw Olivia she also said “it’s too hard to be a dermoid cyst.” She did say that she didn’t feel surgery was necessary to remove the cyst (if this is what it really is) unless it’s starts to grow. I’m hoping she’s right, however with all the changing of the minds going on it leaves our confidence in these doctors in limbo.

So as you can see we are still uncertain of what this REALLY is. Mother’s intuition tells me to get a second opinion. I have a call in to the eye doctor for a referral to Birmingham. I’ve requested that the plastic surgeon here mark on the scans where she sees the dermoid cyst so that I can be sure a new doctor will see what she sees. Keith and I saw something on the scans and we’re not trained in reading CT scans…tell me how two doctors missed it. Tell me too how 3 different radiologist can make three totally different calls. One says it’s nothing, one says it’s a lesion that’s not attached to the bone, and the third says it’s a dermoid cyst.

Please continue to be in prayer for us. Olivia’s eye doesn’t seem to be bothering her and I pray it doesn’t start. According to the eye doctor, her vision tests were great. Pray that God will lead us to someone in Birmingham who can definitely confirm what the lesion is and whether or not it needs to be removed immediately for biopsy. I pray that it is in fact a dermoid cyst and nothing more. I’ll update again when we know more.

Update #2 on Olivia

Second update from Olivia's Mommy on her condition:



First of all let me thank each of you for your kind words in your messages and most importantly your prayers. I was overwhelmed when I opened my inbox. We appreciate it so much!

Olivia did well today. She was a strong little girl even though the I.V. hurt! She tolerated her anesthesia well and had no problems. The nurse that we had was awesome and I know that God was working through her. Olivia loved her and she made such a sense of calm come to the room. I know it was HIM showing us that he was there with us. They were so nice at the hospital. They could sense my concern, had compassion and allowed us to be in the imaging room looking in on Olivia during her cat scan. We never were asked to leave her side. I was so grateful for that. It's scary when your child is put under anesthesia since there are so many risks involved. When you have a family history with anesthesia problems, it's that much worse. But as I said, all went well and we were able to be at home and relax this afternoon.


Now on to the important stuff. I asked everyone to pray that this is nothing. The preliminary report from the radiologist says that it's NOTHING!!!! What an answered prayer!! We still have to take the scan pictures to the eye plastic surgeon and let her review them on Monday. This still leaves the human nature in us doubting the results just a bit. It still leaves the question of what the knot is and why when it's felt by doctors does her eye get blue and swell a little. There is a knot there and why the radiologist didn't mention it in simple terms to us, I don't know. In other words, we don't know just yet if it's bone or sinus cavities etc. I guess that's why the surgeon wants to see it. She's definitely of aware of where the knot is and has felt and seen it. I'm not a radiologist by any means but in one picture, you can definitely see it on the scans. God makes each of us unique and it could be her bone structure for some reason. The main thing is that he didn't spot any type of growth that was mentionable.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go through next week and let the surgeon look at things to be sure the radiologist didn't miss something. We're happy that the preliminary report states that it's nothing but will be alot better after confirming it with the surgeon since she actually did the exam. With things like this you can never be too careful.

Thank you all again for your prayers. I'll email again on this next week. I love you all and am thankful to have each of you in my life. God bless you!

Update on Olivia Please continue to pray

An update email from my friend regarding her child Olivia:

Thank you all for your emails and for your prayers.

We took Olivia to the eye surgeon yesterday. Unfortunately an ultrasound could not be done. She said it would only show what she could feel from examining her which is a boney type of mass. The eye surgeon said she really doesn’t know what it is. She said that she’s hoping it’s a benign boney mass but the only real way to know for sure what it is would be to do a cat scan. She did say that normally malignancies grow very fast. Since this “mass” hasn’t changed much since I noticed it in late April, she said that hopefully was a good sign. It still doesn’t make it any less scary for us especially when they stop calling it a cyst and start calling it a mass. Olivia is scheduled for a cat scan tomorrow at 11:00. Keith and I are very worried. Please continue to lift Olivia up in prayer. Pray that she’ll be o.k. during the sedation tomorrow for the cat scan. Pray that the cat scan will show exactly what type of “mass” it is. Pray that it’s nothing serious. Pray that God will lay His healing hands on her and that this will go away on its own without major surgery. Thanks.

Prayer Request for a friend

A friend of mine sent an email to me and others today asking for prayers. Please read this copied email from her and please take time to pray for their daughter. :

I’m asking you all to lift Olivia up in prayer. She has some sort of “cyst” under her right eye lid that has been there since at least the end of April and doesn’t appear to be getting better. After going to an eye doctor this morning, we’ve been referred to an eye plastic surgeon (for tomorrow) to see if an ultrasound can be done to determine the density of this knot. The eye doctor sounded very unsure of what it could be and said it did not feel as if it was a fluid filled cyst. This is very alarming for us. Please lift her up and ask God to lay his healing hands on her. Pray that this is nothing serious and that the doctors can determine what it is and take the appropriate course of action. Thanks.

Our newest baby

Well despite all the "don't do its" we received from several friends and family members, we got a new baby. Her name is Piper and she is a sweet little Yorkie puppy! We have had her for three days and absolutely love her already. She had her first vet visit today. She's nine weeks old and weighs 2 lbs. I think 1/2 lb. was poop, full bladder and full belly, Ha-ha!!! The vet said everything looks A-ok!!! and gave her a clean bill of health.

Here are some cute puppy pics for you all to be in awe over:

Lulee is anxiously awaiting her new puppy.

Here we are choosing which puppy we wanted. There were only two females, one male and then a female yorkie-poo.

We've got a winner!!! Lulee wouldn't let this one go. Sadie wasn't with us, she was having a Nanny night.

Lulee is checking on her baby on our ride home.


We stopped by and let Auntie Lori and Jose,Uncle by association, Ha-ha!! see their newest niece.

Sadie is holding her new furry baby sister.



Daddy is so attached to his little Piper already.



Daddy still holding his baby.