2007 Highlights (and a few lowlights)

I was updating our 'sidebar' on the blog and I wanted to delete the 2007 highlights, but I also wanted to have a summary somewhere so I thought this would be a pretty good place to insert it as an entry and then we would have it written down somewhere. I was talking with someone the other day and she said that her grandmother wrote a letter each Christmas to family and friends that summarized the year and then she made a scrapbook with those letters and Christmas photos from each year. I thought that was a really nice idea--one place to find a summary of each year and pictures showing how people had changed throughout the year.

Sorry if this drags on a bit--feel free to skip it!

January The year started off with a bit of a bang--within a week our couch broke (yes, past the point of the lumpy cushions and broken springs of the last 6 years) and my car (Cavalier) required a pricey fix. So, that allowed us to spend our money in ways that we hadn't intended (always a nice surprise after Christmas!). In addition, our babysitter went to Bangledesh for a month and a half and we scrambled to find coverage for the girls. My mom was amazing (as usual) and helped us out by coming to Columbia almost every week for 3 days while I worked a compressed work week (thank you work for approving that!).

February I don't have a lot of memories of February--I'll get back to you on this one :)

March This is always a busy month for us. From February 19th-March 19th, there are 7 birthdays in my immediate family (I am including Kristy here--she's always been family)! It's almost like a strung out Christmas season. The girls got pretty sick and we had to reschedule their birthday party (delay it a week). They were miserable. In addition to the birthday parade, Olivia had her first screening and IEP meeting with the school district and started preschool at the Early Childhood Special Education preschool. She cried for the first 3 weeks--it was really a big adjustment for her, but it has been wonderful for her and has been very helpful.

April I think we spent this entire month recovering from March!

May We were finally able to get an appointment with a geneticist in Columbia (we scheduled the appointment in November, but I guess they are in high demand). He explained Olivia's chromosomal duplication to us and ordered several tests to be sure that there weren't any problems that we hadn't seen yet. We scheduled an ultrasound of Olivia's kidneys (normal), an echo and EKG (normal), and an x-ray of her bones because he thought she was a bit big for her age (normal--Jason was not able to attend the geneticist appointment because he was traveling for work; I guess he didn't believe me that Olivia was right on track). The genetic counselor supplied me with information on two studies for the duplication that were taking place and an organization in the UK for families with rare chromosomal disorders. I am a little sorry to say that we did not call any of these for at least a month or two--my excuse is that we were a bit overwhelmed at this time and also trying to schedule all of these tests!

June Olivia starts therapeutic horsebackriding. Her horses' name was ______ (I forgot the first horse's name already, which is why I should've written all of this down sooner!). We join the rare chromosomal organization and get in touch with another family whose daughter has the same condition. This was such a big help for us--to hear what their experiences had been like and to recognize many of the same traits between Olivia and this girl. To talk with her mother brought a lot of comfort to me. I then started contacting others as well. Throughout the rest of the year, we would be in touch with about 6 other families all over the US (and one in Belgium). We have formed a group that keeps in touch via email and sometimes phone. When we have a question or need a suggestion, that group is always there for us. It would've been a much different year without them--I can't say enough good things about the support that we have gotten from these families.

July Rockaway Beach!! We went on our annual family trip to Branson. Again, there was a good turnout--at least 40 people staying in a group of cabins. The girls LOVE the trip--Josie is getting to be a pretty good little swimmer and learned how to do her handstand here. Olivia tolerated her life jacket well and was able to maneuver around the pool with it on which is a great start! The girls made bears at the Build-A-Bear workshop--identical pink bears (Olivia first picked a cat, but when she saw Josie's choice she changed her mind to match). The bears are named Teddi (Olivia's) and Rainbow (Josie's). Mom and dad came to our house at the end of July to help us start on the patio. We got pretty far--the bed was laid for the stones by the end of the day. It took quite a bit longer for Jason and I to place the stones after work with our little munchkins running around.

August Jocelyn starts 1st grade! We finally finished our patio (thank goodness--I was REALLY tired of hauling rocks).

September This was a busy month! We were very excited to welcome a new niece/cousin--Maya. She is so cute and sweet--the girls adore her. Check out Brandon and Lezlie's blog at blheimsoth.blogspot.com for some great pictures of Maya! Jason and I went to Italy with Steve and Sarah for vacation. As our vacations tend to be, it was jam-packed. I know a lot of people don't like to travel that way, but Jason and I are so excited just to run around and see new things that we hate to waste it sitting around somewhere. Luckily, Steve and Sarah are great to travel with and put up with us! We did take our time over each meal which is a good thing because the food was FABULOUS!!!!!! I really got in the habit of eating lunch from 1-2:30 and then dinner at the end of the day from 8-10 or so. On our trip, we went to Rome, Pompeii, Florence and spent a little time in Naples. In therapeutic horseback riding, Olivia upgrades to a quicker horse named Scotty. Susan starts a new job with Internal Medicine as a nurse clinician.

October Jason gets to stop his blood pressure medication that he has been on for almost 7 years (that was really great news and we are so relieved for that). We had our 2nd 'Annual' Halloween Party. We took the girls to Shryocks corn maze with Mila, Joe and Vanessa.

November Jocelyn takes a tumbling course. Maya is baptized. Susan gets accepted into the Master’s program at MU.

December We took some time to get Christmas ready and celebrate all the great things that happened throughout the year!