Simple Enough

I have stored my scarves and belts on a hook on my closet door for years.  They are super annoying and fall off all the time!  Plus I could never get just one down without three or four falling off as well.  It wasn't working very well.  Then I saw that I had pinned this a while ago and of course never did it.

Seemed simple enough and would make for an easy mark off the pinned list so I finally did it.

The first picture was pretty clear that this was the first step.

 Here is my pile of scarves and belts.

Here is the tricky part.  Put it on the curtain loop. Then again and again with the rest of your items.  I know that was complicated but try and keep up.

 I was pretty satisfied at this point.  Then I picked it up and realized that this hanger wouldn't last long under the weight of everything.

So I put it on a wooden one, which when I looked back at the steps became obvious that I should have done in the first place. Done. The loops were $1.16 at my local Walmart.

Glitter Bomb

A few weeks ago while I was at the craft store I let each girl pick an item out of the fall clearance.  Emmeline picked a little pumpkin and Isa picked some blank gourds that could be decorated however you choose.  Guess what she chose?  Yep, glitter. This isn't a pin by the way.  Just some independent craftiness.

First paint on some glue

Then sprinkle away! Over a plate of course.

Here they are drying.  I had her give me the plate after each one so I could return the fallen glitter to the container.  It surprisingly didn't use much.

A finished bowl of glitter 

Price: Glue was .25 during back to school sales.  I really stock up at this time and rarely have to buy full price glue all year. Glitter $2.99 with 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby.  Gourds $2.49 on clearance. Total $5.73  but worth if for a craft Isa could do all by herself!

Yarn Wrapped Letters

This one I chose basically because I got some SUPER cheap multicolored yarn at Walmart that I really liked and I don't knit so...

Once again I didn't take any during pictures.  Hopefully I'll get better about that.  But in my defense my fingers were covered in glue which I didn't really want on my phone. 

I used Elmer's glue because that way I would accidentally glue myself to the letters, which is what would happen with super glue. I basically glue and wrap small sections at a time, overlapping when I needed to.  You will end up with some spaces on the end corners that you can't wrap so I just cut small lengths of yarn and glued those down to cover the exposed letter. You can see a part I was messy on on the bottom corner of the middle line of the E.  See?  My messiness comes in handy! Teaching opportunities, not only can you see what I mean about covering the ends but you will also learn from my messy mistake :)

Here they are with the hanging ribbon added.  I hadn't really thought about that until I looked back at the pin.  They also had some cute flowers added as well but I'm I didn't do that...Dang it! now I feel guilty!  Fine I'll do it.

I started by tracing a CD on some felt. Then cut it into a snailish shape, leaving a whole in the middle (you'll have a small circle of felt left).

Then roll it up

 Here is me rolling the red one

 With flowers!

On these size letters the CD template was a little big so I used a sippy cup on the next one and then just tiny circles on the little ones.  I just eyeballed those.

Here is the pin picture

Breakdown: $2.49 each for the letters.  I didn't get those one sale but you could if you were patient, they go on sale pretty frequently.  The felt is .25 each but I had some left over from another project so I'll call it .20 for both colors. The ribbon was also from another project but I used about 12 inches total for them and it was $1.50 for 3 yards so .17.  the Yarn for wrapping was .75 for one spool and this took a bit more than 1 (they were small) so $1. Totaling $6.35 for both.  I hope the girls like them! :)

ASL Clock

This is one that I pinned intending to make it right away and then kept putting it off.  I figured it wasn't a rush since Emmeline can't really tell time yet and I was making it for her.  In retrospect I wish I had taken more pictures during. I'm the worst at that.  I never think about pictures until the end. I should have done a picture of it on the wall but I'll just say that I couldn't quite bring myself to hang it in Emmeline's room where I wouldn't get to see it very often so I put it in the dining room instead.  Anyway, here it is.

I sculpted the hands using Sculpey oven drying clay.  It comes in a TON of colors!  I will say that even though I didn't use any metallic colors on the clock, I did use them on another project.  They are SUPER hard to work with and don't really soften when you knead them.

Overall It didn't take a huge amount of time once you figure out how to mold the hands. Just start with a pudgy oval and then make every hand into a base 5 and work with it from there. After all 12 numbers/hands are sculpted then you bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.  Then paint your clock face and install the clock.  Installation wasn't hard, there are directions on the package.  Make sure you put all your numbers on the face before you glue any down so you can make sure your spacing is correct.  and viola, you made a super cool clock! 

Price break down: I bought all my parts/supplies on sale.  Most craft stores have a 40-50% off mobile coupon all the time.  I make use of mine on my most expensive parts.  Michael's is the only store I have found with pre-drilled clock faces so that is where I got mine.  It was $7.99 full price and I used a 40% off 1 item coupon to get it for $4.79, I did the same for the actual clock pieces but I got it at Hobby Lobby so another $4.79.  Make sure when you get the face and clock that the two are compatible some clock pieces are made for very thin faces.  The paint was .69.  The clay I got while there was an in store sale for 50% off.  I find that pretty much anything that ever goes on sale is on a 2-3 week cycle so if the clay isn't on sale right now just give it a couple weeks and it probably will be.  I got 3 different colors.  Each block is subdivided into 4 pieces which are the perfect size for each hand.  They were 1.39 on sale so 4.18 for all 3.  I glued them on with super glue from the DollarTree which was sold in a 3 pack, I'll just call it another $1. That brings our grand total to: $15.45. I am totally OK with that because I love it!!

Here is the pin picture

The Master Plan...Too Many Jack London Quotes?

It's probably no secret that I have had a hard time living in Texas.  The heat alone is a deal breaker for this winter loving girl.  With this being our very probable last year here I have been getting antsy for the next phase.  This has made it even harder than normal to wait.  I don't really do 'wait'.  This coupled with the fact that I am being driven crazy by 2-3 hours minimum in the car everyday, I had to find an outlet.
I love to organize so I have been organizing anything I could.  It is like nesting but worse.  Probably bordering on some obsessive disorder but after watching hoarders I feel much better about my choices. After running out of closets and such to organize I started getting tense.  This led me to an epiphany!
I have/had a HUGE 'Things I Would Make' Pinterest board.  I say 'had' because I have done some cleanup there as well so some stuff got the ax.  Anyway, I have decided that for the next 6-8 months I am going to try and make as many of the things on my 'I Would Make' board as I can.  When I complete a pin I will move it over to the 'things I made' board. It's a nice little way to double check it off :)  Since the pins wont actually show my finished product I will also post each completed project here along with (hopefully) pictures and a price breakdown.  I know I get irritated when I start a craft not knowing how much it will cost in the end.  Some of those pins are pricey!
Hopefully my new plan will stave off insanity and many whiny boring blog posts between now and next summer.

I'm going to cheat this time though and post links to a couple of ones I have already made. I figure it counts because I just got to move them on my boards so...

My Tulle Wreath  The beginning of this post is about a map project that is on the top of my new to do list :) This one ended up costing me $2. I got the Tulle on a spool from Hobby Lobby (my favorite crafting store!) when it was 50% off, which happens fairly frequently, for $1.50.  I got the wreath base for .50 from the Target dollar spot after Christmas.  I lucked out on the wreath because since it was a dark color I didn't need to paint or cover the base. If you aren't so lucky you can just get a can of the .97 Walmart spray paint.

Here is a picture of the pin

Harry Potter Wands  This one also includes the Dobby ears I made but sadly that isn't a pin. For the wands I got a pack of chopsticks for the DollarTree for, you guessed it $1.  I got several packs of whatever beads were on clearance at the craft store. These were .50 for each pack and I got three.  It doesn't matter what color because you paint over them.  I got 3 shade of paint at .53 per bottle and a TON of glue sticks for $3.99.  So total $8.08.  That might sound like quite a bit for one craft (it does to me) but the bulk of that was paint and glue, both of which will be used on other projects too.

Here is the wand pin picture

Emotional Trick

Sometimes after a long period of stress or sadness I get this ache.  It's an odd sort of ache.  Kind of like that pain you get then you haven't moved a muscle for a while and it starts to stiffen up.  That is kind of what it feels like.  I figured out what it was the other day.  My happy is aching.
I know that sounds ridiculous and weird, but that is the best way I can think of to describe it.  It's like my happy emotion is always there but kind of gets pushed to the back and the stress/pain gets all the stimulation.  Then after a while it gets antsy/jealous.  It wants stimulation too.  Then my emotions have a nice little battle.  Stress gets a little more stressy because it stresses me out that I feel like I need to feel happy which in turn makes me feel less happy. It's a sick little cycle.
I've tired to do a few things to kick start it but so far nothing has panned out.  It seems like a fluke when it finally happens which is super frustrating!  It's like I have to trick myself into it because if I see it coming I inevitably get stressed!

Lord Beer Me Strength

A good old-fashioned rant.

I hate Emmeline's new riding instructor.  I'm not even sure I should call her that. I think I'll re-title her Emmeline's riding idiot.  So, This year we had to switch instructors because since Emmeline started AVT right on top of riding.  We ended up with someone I have never used before which always makes me nervous but I am getting kind of used to doing uncomfortable things so I tried it.  She is the worst.  Our first day she was late.  Not a good sign FYI.  Then she got there and started complaining about how tired she was because she had been moving all day the day before.
I feel like maybe I should explain something that you all probably already know.  I am VERY busy with Emmeline.   This has led to me being as efficient as possible with our time and appointments. We get things done.  Don't get me wrong, Emmeline still loves it.  It gets her the most riding time and she still gets to do everything else she likes.  It is a system that has worked well for us for years.
Along comes this idiot hippie, dumbing things down for me like I have been immersed in this kid for the last 5.5 years.  Correcting me left and right and telling me not to rush her when all I asked was if she was ready to get her saddle!  Then she acts like we don't know anything about this place or riding horses!  I can tell she's one of those crazy "life force" people who just want to stand there and feel the energy of life pulsing through their body.  I'll out my fist through your body!  If she tries to teach me one more thing about MY daughter I think I will hurt something!  SHE ACTUALLY TRIED TO EXPLAIN EMMELINE'S STROKE TO ME TODAY AND HOW IT WILL IMPACT HER!!!!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!  I'm so mad I can't even think about it to type it coherently!
The deal breaker for me came when she interrupted Emmeline's brushing, which she loves, to make her play some stupid "game" where she makes her stand right in front of the horse and lets him sniff her and rub his nose on her.  Bad idea for several reasons.  1) Emmeline DIDN'T want to! 2) the reason why she didn't want to (IF IDIOT HAD ASKED!) is because she has no balance system and if that horse bumped her she would fall and she knows that! 3) she doesn't like textures touching her.  She doesn't mind touching them but she has to initiate.
I tried to talk to Emmeline to reassure her that it was OK and the idiot shushed me!!!! This woman has a death wish!  Then she proceeded to push Emmeline repeatedly to make her stand exactly where idiot deemed the best spot.  At that point I told her to stop that Emmeline didn't want to do it.  After the whole ordeal she came over to me glowing telling me that she was helping Emmeline not be afraid of her horse!  She has ridden that horse for 4 YEARS idiot!!  I swear I'm gonna lose it!

Would You?

Let's play pretend.  You have a beautiful new baby.  You are thrilled and excited!  Your new beautiful baby fails her infant hearing screening but they don't seem super concerned.  Babies frequently fail because of the flailed present during delivery, they say.  Bring her back to the hospital in a few days and they are sure she'll pass.  You go on your marry innocent way.  She fails the follow up screening, 3 times.  After that they cut you off because it's a mandated sedated hearing test after 4 fails.  Suddenly people aren't saying it might be a fluke anymore.  They CT her ears and based on the fact that nothing in her ear is as it should be they stop being coy.  They tell you your' beautiful new daughter is probably profoundly deaf.  You try and make it sound OK.  After all you have been around deaf people before.  Several of your family members sign (OK I know, I know, this is really specific pretend.  Go with it) and you even know a little yourself.  You imagine the "fun" stuff like picking out hearing aids and glittery ear molds.  Then some good news!  She isn't profoundly deaf, just moderately. Still means hearing aids so you make the best of it and pick out the sparkliest ear mold you can.
Years go by and you child doesn't really talk.  She yells, and vocalizes and such but no real words other than "no, daddin, mom and bebe".  Then something changes.  She goes profoundly deaf for no explainable reason.  The doctors each give you their opinions and then say "let us know what you decide".  You agonize over your choices. Continue with current treatment or change things up? You were fine with deafness remember, you decided 4 years ago?  You'll just learn to sign and she'll be fine.  But you found out about an option called a cochlear implant.  It could make it possible for her to talk. She would hear you.  Actually hear your words and would hopefully in turn speak. Does that mean deaf is bad?  Does it mean no sign language or that ASL is bad? Does that mean I think something is wrong with her? What would you do?

The Time

Tomorrow is my baby's birthday and I'm filled with hate and distractedness.  On a day when I should be reflecting on her very hard fought life I am filled with rage.  I am so angry at people for not helping a little girl who works so hard have a little easier time at her life.  To give her a boost...because she earned it.  She worked her tiny little ass off!  For what?  More hard work apparently.  Not to say she isn't progressing, but as a mother it breaks my heart to have to see her fight so hard to do what most take for granted.
It makes reflecting on her birth so painful.  To remember that I thought, if I could just get her this or that she would be...something...I don't know.  It's just a compulsion that I think every parent has.  I'll get   my child whatever help they need!  No matter what kind of help it is, if they need it you get it. Until one day, you can't.  Someone says no, your child doesn't deserve that.  Your child has to work much harder to get the same thing.  And they act like they gave you a present, with a pretty bow on top.  A box full of excuses and look how great she's doings.  Basically the finger.
Why?  I said it.  I have never been able to be that parent who never asked why.  I have always wanted to know.  Why Emmeline?  Why our family?  What made me so qualified to do this?  No I'm not a super strong person, no I had no experience with anything like this, no it's not fun.  It's hard.  Hard to look back on and hard to live.  Knowing that one day, Emmeline will be fighting these fights.  I wont be able to keep them from her.  Then she'll know...

I Can Do Anything, That's Everything, All On My Own!

Emmeline really like this show called Charlie and Lola.  It is told from the point of view of the older brother, Charlie, and is all about his small yet funny sister Lola.  Lola, reminds me of Emmeline.  She likes to be spoiled but also like to be independent if that makes sense.

Today my baby became less my baby.  She went to her first day of PreK.  All on her own.  We found an amazing school called The Hearing School of The Southwest. It's a great school about 30 minutes away that is for children with CI and HA that helps them get ready for mainstream school. She was a little nervous as we talked about it the last few days but was so excited that she kept coming in my room very early this morning, over and over.  When she went to bed she hugged Isa extra tight and told her she would miss her very much.  It was a melt your heart moment. We made it rough the night though and she was extra adorable getting ready today. We also made this Isa's official first day of school even though she started a bit last week.

Obligatory Sign pictures.

Very tall 5th grader.

When I gave Emmeline her new backpack and put it on her she kind of wobbled and I had to stead her.  Then I showed her that you could roll it and she lit up and said "Oh, it's perfect!" Very cute.

Isa chose a cool binder with different colored musical notes all over it but didn't want a picture.

Cute sisters.

Walking into school.  So big

All of us wanted our picture with her in her "little school" as Emmeline calls it. 

Family shot

 Chatting with her teacher

Mushy part.  I feel very blessed a more than a little overwhelmed that this:

Made it to this:

I'm choosing to shut out the reality of this day until a future day when I can process it in a healthier way. Or at least when I'm not already super congested.  

I Have Tulle!

So on Saturday we had a weird day.  Josh was actually home most of the day!  This meant that the girls were all over him, which in turn meant they weren't all over me. YAY!  So I decided I wanted to make something. I got on my "Things I would make" board on Pinterest and selected this beauty.

I had almost forgotten about it but my sister, Terra, mentioned it when she was hear.  So I spent all this time printing out a huge map and taping it together to take with me to the hardware store to make sure the boards were long enough.  It took forever.  I decided to take a break and scan my Facebook before heading out.  Big mistake;  apparently it was 108 with the heat index and I had already showered that day.  So...no cool wooden map today.

I was pretty bummed since I had already gotten by creative juices flowing, which is no small task for me.  Then I ran across this. But it takes a ton of tulle :(

Then I remembered that I had previously tried to make this, but failed miserably.

This was when I realized, hey, I have tulle! And luck would have it I also had a wreath form :)
So I set to work.  Luckily I had purchased a spool of tulle, a spool of tulle, a spool of tulle, I made a tongue twister! Anyway, I had a spool of tulle to make a beltish accessory for my skirt, which made it way easier since I only had to make one cut for each strand.

So basically you cut 24-28 inch pieces of tulle, I ran out of y spool before I was done so I have to cut out a bunch of long rectangular pieces out of my failed skirt.  Not fun at all.

Then you fold the each piece in half and loop it through.  Pretty basic.  You just do it over and over and over...

 I decided to put it on our huge main wall and luckily Josh likes it.  I want to add a big tulle accent bow to the bottom left side to take down the "Halloween" look of it.

 This was supposed to show the accent bow but in black, yeah you can't really see it...

At least I got to make something semi quick and in the AC!

Here We Go Adventuring

When I was little I lived in a neighborhood that we called the block.  The block consisted of a mile (ish) loop with 2 "shortcut" streets that went through the middle.  Most of the houses with kids were on our side of the block and we would all hang out together.  We would often go on adventures.  Most of which took place in the wilds of our backyards.  It's amazing how creative kids can be when you give them some woods and a garden of many edible plants.  Granted the other neighborhood children thought it was really weird that the Perkins kids ate all those weeds.  I loved it.  I felt so wild and free, living off the land.
I remember once that my mom took us to this lady's house for a field trip of sorts and she taught us all the wild plants that you could eat.  I also, remember that she had a gazebo/greenhouse thing with a fish pond in it.  Very cool.  At the end of the day we had a big meal of the things we had found we could eat.  The one that made the biggest impression were some fried flowers.
One of the families with kids in the neighborhood lived way down our side of the block. Almost around the curve to the other side.  Twins, Steven and Jimmy, that were a few years older than me.  Jimmy was the nice one.  We would play with them all the time, up until they went to high school.  Then playing with a 6-7th grader wasn't fun anymore I guess.  On one of my more grand far from home adventures, I rode my bike up the hill and into the field behind S and J's house.  It seemed like such a big hill and like I was miles from home.  I reality I was probably about .5 to .75 miles from my house.  We would go flying down, holding our feet up in the air so they wouldn't get tangled in the spinning peddles of our bikes.  I was super excited when I found some wild cabbage at the top of the hill and of course ate some.  I got the usual "there she is eating weeds again" look from the twins.  I didn't mind.  I felt so grown up and free, being so far from home, riding my bike way too fast, and living off the land. I could handle anything.
We made this awesome hotel in the woods behind my other neighbors house that we played in for hours and hours.  We had several lovely rooms.
My family used to have a leaf raking business when we were kids.  We each got a cut, the older more hard working children getting more of course.  We had quite a few clients.  I'm not sure if we didn't have anywhere to dump them or something but at one point we ended up with a mountain of bags of leaves in our back yard.  It was huge.  We all got some blankets and homey items and built ourselves rooms out of bags of leaves.  It was awesome.  We sent quite some time of there.
I loved visiting old people.  I always felt more at ease with older people when I was young.  When I was 4ish, we lived in Mount Olive and I would visit the little old lady next door, but only after her soaps were off.  On the block I had a favorite, Mr. Williams.  He was a sweet old man in his 70s.  The coolest things about him was the fact that he had this amazing old truck he was working on his in backyard, which he parked over a pit so he could easily get at the underneath.  I wasn't aloud to get very close to it because he was afraid I would fall in but I peaked once and saw that he could totally stand up in there without hitting his head on the truck.  I wondered how he got so lucky to live in a house with a pit perfect to fix his truck already in the back yard.  It blew my little mind when I found out he had dug it himself.  It was like he was Superman to me after that.  I would go visit him several times a week.  I hope it never annoyed him.  I like to think it didn't.  When I was in college, I was home for the weekend and went for a run and saw him checking his mail.  He knew immediately I was a Perkins.  What can I say, we have a look. He stopped me and asked about the family.  I told him everyone was well.  Then, he stopped, stared me right in the face, and asked what sweet little Megan was up to.  I smiled and told him I was Megan and was home visiting from college.  He teared up and reached out to give me a hug.  It was one of the sweet moments in life.  I will never forget it.
I loved adventuring.  By the time I was Isa's age I had several great ones under my belt. The freedom we had as kids was amazing.  The moments that stand out.  The things that come to you first when you think about growing up.
Does Isa even have those?  What are they about?  Will they be things she tells her therapist when she is older that helped her grow or tore her down?  What will she remember?

My Reward?

Something hit me just now.  I know why I'm slightly mushier.  Texas.  I know, I know, I blame a lot on Texas but hear me out!  I hate it here.  Stay with me.  I hate it here but I can't leave.  This makes me very unhappy.  Wallowing unhappy.  But I know I have to stay, so... I reward myself for not killing anyone, with food.  Normally when I see a treat I think, "I could eat that", I then think, "you could but do you need to?", and keep on moving.  Now it goes something like this:

"Food , I could eat that."

"But do you need it?"

"DO YOU NEED TO STILL BE ALIVE?!"

"That's what I thought, now give me the darn food!!"

Then I eat it and no one dies.  Win win it would seem.  Until I try to put on my summer clothes.  Then I wallow and start all over.  It's a vicious cycle littered with candy wrappers and yummy baked goods.  It doesn't help that even though I know about it, I also know I still can't leave so...I think there might be whoppers in the cabinet.

Running Where?

In Parks and Recreation there is a character named Chris.  He is a health fanatic.  Eating organic, exercising constantly and taking ever multivitamin under the sun.  In one episode he tells you how many miles he has run in his lifetime.  It's half way to the moon.  His goal, is to run all the way to the moon.  It got me wondering if other people have a goal like this?  A total # of miles that would reach a far away place?  Why the moon, did he want to go there?  Why not say "I ran to Disney World X # of times"?  Should It be somewhere you want to go?  It seems like it should be.  Otherwise why run there?
I find running a loop kind of deflating.  You get back and you're like "wasn't I just here"?  It's almost like running on a treadmill.  Almost.  I'd at least like it to be a big loop, so I only had to go around once.  Here I'm stuck running a loop that is a little more than a mile that I have to do over and over.
I'm not into speed goals so those wont help me.  I prefer the distance.  I don't care how long it takes me to get there as long as I do.

But where am I running too?

Another New Favorite

Most people know I love to go after bargans.  This includes clothes.  I hardly ever go into a store without scanning the clearance racks for clothes for the girls for next season.  Target usually has the best, and lately they have had a ton of my new favorite item for Emmeline.  Jeans.  I know it sounds plain and fairly lame but these are jeans without a stretchy waist!  Emmeline has never been able to wear these before.  Every other winter her pants have consisted of mostly leggings or the occasional elastic waisted jeans.  The problem with traditional jeans was that they would hit right at her g-tube and rub it which caused quite a bit of irritation.  But now that we are tube free I have been having SO much fun buy real jeans for my little Dumple!

The Early Bird Gets The CI

I was going to wait to post anything about Emmeline's CI surgery until her activation.  Is it me or is that taking FOREVER!!??  So activation will be getting it's own post.  

Emmeline was supposed to get her CI on June 3rd, I wont go into all the boring details, but due some infuriating run around by the ENT's office staff, insurance authorization didn't come in until June 5th.  This meant we got bumped to June 17th!  You can imagine what happened when this started to go down.  I am told I handled it well.  Interestingly enough when authorization did come through it was good starting 4 whole days before the 3rd.  

So, jump to the 17th.  We were the first slot of the day which meant we had to be in Fort Worth at 5:15am so we had to leave Denton at 4am.  I figured Emmeline would be less than happy about this but when I stopped for gas I looked back and saw this.  Pretty cute.

When we got there no one else was there.  Not even registration people.  Apparently they don't have to be there until 5:20.  She was still in good spirits.

I'm a little obsessed with before and after shots so here is the before of the left side of her head.

 Still thumbs up after putting on the gown.

I think the way her ENT marks the surgery side is pretty cute.

I am pretty sure she is trying to do thumbs up but they had already giving her "giggle juice" at this point.

I think she is trying to smile here.  She kept scrunching up her face and sticking out her thumb.

Her ENT told me to expect the surgery to take about 2.5 hours.  I figured that meant 2.5 of actual surgery time and about 45 minutes to an hour or prep time while she was out.  Her ENT is more than a little OCD.  His nurse said my estimate was good.  It ended up taking 5 hours cut to close.  Emmeline had a split/fanned facial nerve.  This is common in kids with CHARGE.  Most people's facial nerve moves through their ear area and into the face as one nerve.  Emmeline's came in as one but then split and twisted around her cochlea.  This is a problem because they need to put the electrode into her cochlea without paralyzing her face.  Luckily our ENT has some pretty rare experience with this and was able to go in the "backdoor" where her vestibular system should have been.  It takes longer though.      Placement looks good but we wont know for sure until her CT scan on Tuesday.

I try to pack light when at the hospital.  Especially when I am there with Emmeline alone.  It's hard to handle her and a bunch of bags.  Toward the end of the procedure an Audiologist  came out and gave me this beast.  It's a goody box from Med El for all new recipients.  I stuck my foot in there for scale.  I don't have small feet.  

This is how they left her with me.  She was pretty nice until she woke up. 

Then she started crying that the bandage hurt and the vomiting started.  She was really hungry and thirsty but since she had been under for 2x longer then they thought the anethstesia was really messing her up. She couldn't keep anything down for 14 hours.  

She perked up briefly while Facetiming with Josh and Isa.  Then she cried, all night. It was rough.

I asked them to take the bandage off as soon as shift changed.  Here's the scar.  It's shiny because he super glued it.

Back on the laptop.  You can see that the bandage was so tight it made her face all puffy. 

We got home before Isa got home from the sitter so Emmeline killed time looking at her goodies.  The little stuffed elephant has CI's embroidered behind both ears.  Her name is Mellie.  The piano is her second favorite.  Now we wait 3 weeks for her to heal before we can turn her on and she can hear something.

Here is all her exterior CI stuff.  This is a bluetooth device, 2 BTE processors, and one Rondo (it just sticks to her head), a battery recharger, batteries, a dehumidifier, a microphone tester, plus all the other non neutral colors for the battery pack!  Isa is pretty excited about those.  She really wanted the green. The idea of giving it all to us before her activation date (July 10th) is for her to get used to it.  The problem is she loves it and wants to hear now!   

 

Emmeline was THRILLED when Isa got home and this is about how far away she would let her get before she started calling for her.  She keeps stopping what she is doing every once in a while to sign "friend" at Isa. very sweet.  

Even though we hit the rather large snag of getting our initial surgery bumped we feel SUPER blessed through this whole ordeal.  These things really are amazing!