1 week away

we had a great last full weekend. we got some more much needed cleaning around the house done. we know we will be so overwhelmed when we get to bring owen home after the swap so we want the house to be as clean as possible. sometime during last week owen asked if he could stay the night at his nannies house before his surgery. so nick and i thought that it would give us the perfect opportunity to spend time with just livi. saturday night the boys stayed with nicks parents while we took livi on a "date".

we took her to walk and shop around the plaza.
we had dinner at The Melting Pot. it is one of me & nicks favorites. livi wasn't to crazy about the main course but she loved the cheese and chocolate fondue. we had a great time!!!!

then we went miniature golfing at cool crest. the weather was perfect. livi thought it was cool that her mommy and daddy had gone on real dates there before we were married.

sunday morning we had brunch at V's with nick's family. it was definitely a weekend full of yummy food.

today owen and liv didn't go to school because liv and i had dentist appointments and owen had an appointment with his cardiologist. owen goes to karate on mondays, so tonite he went to his last one for a few months. his two helpers in the class are brother and sister and they just adore owen (who doesn't, right?). today they gave him a pumpkin that they decorated and wrote well wishes on, it was so sweet!!!!

so this is it.....one week from today owen will get one of nicks kidneys. all day i have had a big knot in my stomach and i pain my chest. nick and i have been so short with each other but we both know that it is just stress and aren't taking it to heart. i know it is only going to get worse, we just have to make it thru this week. wish me luck

much better.....

today was a much better day. nick took the day off to relax. he said he just felt hung over today. i think it's his mind trying to prepare him for how crumby he his really going to be feeling here soon. so him being home meant he got to do all my friday run-arounds with me, i love when we have the whole day together. first we had a parents teacher conference with owens teacher, he is doing has good has can be expected right now. we are all excited to see what this new kidney will do to owens attitude and behavior. right now he doesn't even realize how sick he is because he has always been this way, so after the swap he should really start to feel good and healthy. i've been asked a lot lately what owen understands or feels about the upcoming swap. i do think he has some understanding about what is going to happen. he knows what surgery is for the most part....does he understand what a kidney is, no-what 5 year old would....does he know how serious and complicated this surgery is, not really. so here is what he does know, his dad is going to give him "his" kidney back, he is going to stay the night at the doctors after the surgery, and this is the latest comment i heard this week while we where pulling into children's mercy parking lot "mom i'm going to miss you when i have my surgery" made me cry and smile at the same time. i said to him "i will miss you too but dont worry i'll be there when you go to sleep and when you wake up" :-) the pictures below will show you what we did with rest of our day.

this is what the hughes boys really look like in the tub with short hair!!!!

omg!!!!

holy cow.....i'm so glad today is over with!!!!! it started off all wrong with getting up way to late and running around like chicken with my head cut to get the kids ready and out the door on time. then on the way to take owen to school he fell asleep which told me he wasn't feeling very well and since i had to pick him at 1pm for some doctor appointments i decided to just not take him and bring him to the salon with me.

he was so crabby and tired when i woke him up at the salon. he just sat down on the curb in the parking lot and told me to leave him there. no way would i leave him there, especially with the crazy homeless :-) but i did think he looked cute sitting on the curb so i took a pic before promising to take him to the train place (fritz's at crown center) for lunch if he came inside. it worked!!! shortly after going in the salon i had a client come in and throw a huge fit about a complete communication misunderstanding. she was going crazy and got way out of line. and i hate to really throw my troubles up at people but i had to play my owen card......kidney transplant is way more important then hair extensions---best quote of the day from natalie :-)

a good thing that came out of this day was that natatlie was able to squeeze in giving owen his foe-hawk back. no more shag-a-muffin for owen!!!!! still haven't decide what to do with noah's hair yet.

me and natalie have been tracking owens height on a door at the salon since he starting taking growth hormones on 7/20/08. it's amazing to see how much he has grown. now for when the day really took a turn for the worst.....the first appointment owen had today was for a colonic. it had been over a year since he had one but we took him to his renal surgeon on tuesday to help make sure the booty back up that happen after the last surgery didn't happen this time. they took an x-ray of his bowels which did show that it was a little backed up so i scheduled the colonic. he did great during the appointment and got a lot of poop out but not to gross everyone out.....he got a lot more out on the way back to the salon and in the salon restroom. super super gross!!!!! jill (who has no kids) asked how did he get it all over himself in the car and i said i didn't know but when i got him out of the car it dripped on my foot :-/ this left me at the salon with a boy with no clothes, 1 diaper, a exploding booty and 45mins till his next 2 appointments at childrens mercy. yikes!!!

nick and owen had to do one last BIG blood draw for a blood mix test that they have already done before but they said they have to again before the transplant. this meant that nick had to give 6 huge vial of blood and owen 9. while we were waiting for them to get it all set up i went and got them some juice, which turned out to be a very good thing.

right after i took this picture of nick smiling getting his blood drawn he asked me to give him a drink, while he was taking a drink he passed out....fainted!!! his head went backed, eyes went back, choking growling noises. nurse runs out to get help, i'm trying to hold his head and wake him up. owens dancing around :-) then the nurses come back and nick sits right up and says "what" then he turned pale as a ghost on halloween and sweating like crazy. it took him a little bit to get back to normal and he still has a headache but he is fine now. owen had to get his blood next and while he did cry like he always does, he still did better then nick ;-)

so good bye day 11 and counting, you will NOT be missed. hello 10 day count down!!!!

pumpkins & pirates x3

we had a good second to last weekend :-) we went to the louisburg cider mill saturday morning and i could've just killed myself....i left the camera at home :-( i was so sad and mad at myself. i got this one pic (shown below) on my phone. we still had a good time. it was really a pretty cool place. livi was the best pumpkin picker outer ever. the apple cider, root beer and apple cider donuts were so yummy. we will for sure go back next year, hopefully i remember the camera.

nick and i accomplished something this weekend we've been trying to do for years. we watched all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies. we've owned them for many years and had seen 1 and 2 but not 3. it had been so long since we'd seen the first two that we needed to watch them again and we just hadn't been able to find time for it until this weekend. livi and owen actually enjoyed them, even noah would say "ooohhhh" when something cool came on. it was family fun. made me want to go back to disney though....don't worry, it doesn't take much to make me think of disney.
i took this picture because this is what i think they would look like if they had short hair. both of them are starting to look like real shag-a-muffins lately and again i'm wondering how short should their next haircut be.....?????

this morning owen just wasn't feeling good and was so tried he had no energy. this is where he fell asleep while i was making breakfast....on the floor between the kitchen and living room.

then he couldn't even hold his up waiting for me to bring him his plate. :-( he did eat a lot....one and half pancakes, some cantaloupe and 2 sausage links....thats really good for him!!! then he laid his head back on the table until we moved him to sofa for the 2nd pirates of the caribbean where he took about 1-1 1/2 hr nap. when he woke up he did seem to be feeling better.

tonite we painting the perfect pumpkins that livi picked out. nick helped noah with his and they did a good job keeping all the paint on the pumpkin.

owen and i did his Frankenstein. i did the hair and green skin. owen did the eyes, nose and mouth all by himself, i wasn't even over by him when he did it. i was so impressed how great he did and how even they are.

livi painted her vampire all by herself and did a excellent job!!!! so is such a crazy girlie!!!

they were so proud to put them out on the porch. i think we are ready for halloween.......bring on Owen's Treat or Trick on Delaware Street!!!!!

owen's trick or treat on delaware street

so owen has been talking about being a vampire for this halloween since last halloween and when i heard that he might not get to have halloween because of the swap i was a little upset. them my sister natalie had the idea not to tell him he would miss halloween because he doesn't really know what day it is on anyways and we will make a halloween for him before the swap. which i thought was i great idea especially when i realized that the first time he came home from the hospital after he was born was october 22nd and we would get to have this 5 years later :-) so that's what we are doing.........Owen's Trick or Treat on Delaware Street!!!! on Friday October 22nd 7-9pm. kids can trick or treat up and down delaware street between 3rd and 5th street in the river market, then they can go to the haunted beauty shop at hair spray cafe for some more tricks and treats. if anyone would be interested in setting up a trick or treat station (which would consist of table and/or chair, decorations optional and of course candy) please email natalie at nattan74@hotmail.com. i just want owen to really think that it is halloween and to have a blast.


tomorrow we are going to the louisburg cider mill and pumpkin patch for the first time. trying to do has many fun things with all the kids in a very short time. only 17 days left :-/

october 25......21 days and counting

i've been pretty emotional since my post last night. shortly after finishing my last post liv came down stairs to sit with me because she couldn't sleep and i some how got into a conversation with her that i wasn't mentally ready to get into and she wasn't emotionally ready to hear. it started with halloween and me letting her know that owen might miss the real halloween and if so we were are going to have a fake halloween. this lead to talking about the swap which i wasn't prepared for how little she really knew (which is only my fault because i guess we hadn't really talked to her about). i heard questioned like this....why can't daddy take me and noah trick or treating? they are going to take something out of my daddy and put it in owen? whats a kidney? how will daddy be able to go pee-pee? can we bring owen halloween treats to the hospital? why is owen so sick? how long will you be gone?......i gave her answers like this.....daddy is having surgery too/daddy has 2 big strong kidneys and owen needs one because his are sick/kidneys help you go pee-pee/aunt nat nat will take you trick or treating/after this owen won't be sick and on as many meds and will grow big and strong like daddy/you can come see us anytime you want. all this brought me to 11:45pm with a sobbing 6 year old on a school night....:-( i just kept reassuring her that mommy and daddy were so happy that this was going to be happening for owen and not to cry anymore because there were no worries. as soon as i woke her up this morning she said to me "i'm so happy owen is going to get daddy's kidney" :-)


then around 3pm today i finally got the phone from the transplant coordinator telling me the swap has been scheduled for october 25. nick and owen will be admitted the evening before (sunday the 24th) to be detoxed and prepped. i've been pretty emotional since that phone call. you'd think that i would be okay since we've been preparing yourselves for this for over a year but actually having to say that on october 25th owen will have a kidney transplant with my husband has the donor is absolutely terrifying. i called nick right away. then tried to call my mom but as soon as i looked at my phone all i saw was #4...which was my dad's #...and lost it. i pulled myself together long enough to call my mom, then natalie but that was all i had in me (sorry cheslea). so i'm telling myself that tomorrow is a new day, no more crying, time to start REALLY preparing......after all tomorrow will be 20 days and counting.

relaxed

we had a wonderful relaxing weekend. i got a lot of cleaning done plus got my halloween decorations up and nick got the staining done on fence...yay!!!

friday night we had a movie night. it was noah's first time to join us and he did okay once the popcorn came out.

saturday liv and i made one of nick's favorite treats....pineapple upside down cake!!! she did such a good job helping me. she is getting so big right before my very eyes. nick and i are trying really hard to spend as much one on one time with her as much as we can before the swap.

it turned out to be so yummy and it was very low sugar....which means mama didn't mind giving them seconds :-)

noah just loves doing everything that owen does. this includes us having to give him a fake shot every night when owen gets his growth hormone. so today noah wanted a gauze bandage on his bellybutton like owen gets to cover his fistula sight (we put it there because it bleeds easily). it so sweet to see him want to be just like owen. all of these things that owen has to do that may not seem normal to most are perfectly normal to noah....i hope it always stays that way.

today we had a picnic lunch and played at a park. i made us tuna salad sandwich which owen didn't like and kept calling them "tuna stinkie sandwich" :-) all this weekend at meal time we would play eye spy. owen didn't really understand how to play it but every time i said i spy with my little eye he would correct me and say "eyeS" so.....really we had a wonderful relaxing weekend and i couldn't have imagined spending it anywhere else.