A WHOLE WEEK HAS GONE BY..........

Sometimes I actually avoid updating the blog because I think people have to get sick hearing about our crazy life but then there are days like today and I just want to tell the whole world how fun and great my kids are. Last week was a little crazy but nothing we aren't use too. Terry's niece has moved back from California with her husband and their son who is 3 months younger than Cooper. We got to see them last Monday and it will be so fun watching Cooper with someone his own age. It is great that they are back and hopefully we will get some fun park time with them when they get settled in. Steph was crazy busy with her two jobs and the first couple weeks here have been a little overwhelming to her. She is in a new place, new routine, new jobs....it is bound to stress anyone out. She is doing great though and we are enjoying her here. Today was the first day we actually got to spend some time together outside of work and we enjoyed a morning of shopping and then home for a nap. I think we all fell asleep except Raelynn of course. It was great!

Raelynn is her normal fun and crazy self. Right now we are working hard to decide what her birthday theme is going to be this year. Her birthday is July 1st and this year we will have her party on July 4th which complicates things a little. She had been very assertive that she wanted a Ballerina Birthday but then when we realized we would be celebrating on the 4th it lead to the idea of just having a 4th of July theme. I told her she could think on it but needed to decide so we could get invitations and once we did that she could not change her mind. This morning she wakes up and has decided that she will have neither a 4th of July or Ballerina Birthday but instead will have a Batman Birthday! What?! Batman?????? So now it is down to these three and hopefully she will decide soon. She informed me today that it didn't really matter what kind of birthday she has as long as everyone brings a present. Although this made me laugh inside we had to talk about the whole present thing. She said she understood that she had to be grateful for everything she had and that she shouldn't expect presents and that some kids don't get presents. She seemed very sad after our little talk and finally she said, "but you and Dad are getting my Nitendo DS right?" So I think we will need to have this discussion again but I just didn't have the heart to push her to tears so I simply said our present would be a surprise.

Cooper is growing by the day. He is getting bigger but by growing I am referring more to his development. The boy is crazy. He is so good but ornery and his smile is a killer. Coop's nickname from Terry, Raelynn and I is "Boo". Honestly I don't remember exactly how it came about, maybe Terry will remember, but we call him Boo all the time. Thursday or Friday we load up in the car to head to work and Terry tells Coop, "Bye Boo". Coop looks right back at him and says, "Bye Boo". It took us by surprise and then we all just started laughing. Dora was on TV the other morning singing the Backpack song and there Cooper is standing in the middle of the living room singing along. He now says yellow and Poho (our Dog) clear as day. Yet with all these new words and new sounds every day, he still doesn't say the basics; drink, milk, up, down, etc. I know he can say it and we try to make him but he just says what he wants when he wants to, much like the way he eats. Sometimes I wonder if this is how Cooper will approach everything. Everything that he does he will do the way and when he likes with little consideration to anyone else and it will be just fine because if anyone does to start feeling annoyed or bothered by him, he will flash them his smile and wrinkle his nose and they will melt just like we do.

Coop did pass his hearing screening finally! So for 6 more months we will not have to worry about his ears, yea! On Friday his cardiologist called and the team met and reviewed his case and they are for sure going to perform the hybrid procedure where they will simultaneously preform open heart surgery and a cardiac catheter to repair his VSD, place stints in his arteries and possibly insert a valve. Cooper will be one of the first patients if not the first to have these procedures done in their new hybrid rooms specifically designed for this approach. We will go in for a clinical visit on August 12th and they will then schedule his surgery for September or October. Therefore, we will not have any further procedures this summer and we can enjoy the sun. Last year we did not get to enjoy our summer at all and we dearly love summer. We are all looking forward to making up lost time. Raelynn and I have decided that we will visit each and every park in Lawrence this year. So far, since stating our goal last weekend, we have been to 3 and have 69 left! It will be a great summer!

We also had fun this past week making chocolate cake in the microwave in a coffee cup! No kidding........you put these ingredients in a coffee cup, throw it in the microwave for 3 minutes and you have delicous chocolate cake. Raelynn, Cooper, Steph and I had fun making it and Terry helped us eat it. It was a lot of fun and Raelynn has wanted to make it every night since.






Today we had a birthday party at the LGA and as always it was great fun. Cooper is now a dare devil and is afraid of nothing. Raelynn is wonderful because she takes her little brother with her everywhere and helps him when he needs it and leaves him alone when he doesn't. I hope they continue to be such great friends.

CATCHING UP.....

I guess when I know Coop is going in for a procedure I put everything on hold because today seemed like all I did was play catch up. Cooper is doing great. Terry said if the surgery did anything it made him louder and ornerier! He was a real trooper and his incision is healing nicely. It is a little sore but is not slowing him down at all. Here are a few pics from surgery day!

Right before surgery after the sleepy meds!

Right after surgery, still very sleepy!

Cooper and Nurse Elizabeth

Cooper is awake and ready to go!

Mommy and Cooper
We cannot thank you all enough for the comments, prayers and love you sent our way. As always I am amazed at how caring our friends and family are and so touched by everyone's williness to help. You are all appreciated. You comments and emails mean the world to us when we are in the hospital!!!
We also missed posting about Raelynn's last day of school! Her last day was last Tuesday. We are going to miss her teachers. she had so much fun this year!


Today we went out to Nanny's grave to visit and place some flowers. It looked beautiful when we were done. We miss our Nanny!


After that and after hours of errands, it was time for our annual setting of the sprinkler system. This has become one of Raelynn's favorite times. While Terry gets the sprinkler system set, she gets to plan in them. It was fun for all!



WE LOVE SUMMER!!!!!!!!!

COOPER IS DOING GOOD....

Well Coop is out of the cath and is doing great. We are in a room and he is currently sleeping, it has been a long morning for him. He has an IV in but it is just standard protocol and won't be removed until we leaved. His SAT level is good and respiratory rate is normal. Thank goodness! These have always been the problems in the past. They have us set up to start discharge at 3:30pm. Yep that's right, we are going home today and we are thrilled! He will probably be sore and a little lethargic for a couple days but everything is good.

What we learned with the cath.....
So as I've said this was an exploratory surgery so they could see exactly what is going on in his little heart and set a plan for his future surgery. Our cardiologist, Dr. Kaine, did the cath and we met with him as soon as they completed one on one. He does a great job of explaining things and this is, in his op onion what we are looking at. He has to consult with Cooper's surgeon, Dr. O'Brien, before it is a done deal but this is what the scenario is now.

Cooper's residual VSD is still there and yet smaller is still significant. This is simply a large hole in his heart between the right and left ventricle. Normally with this size of VSD Coop would not be doing so well but in his anatomy he also has obstruction in the pulmonary arteries that carry blood to the lungs. These two issues together are allowing Cooper to actually be doing very well. However, his right ventricle is being forced to work very hard and is pumping large volumes of blood. In turn, his right ventricle is enlarged. In the short term this is ok and is even making it very conditioned but in the long term this will cause his right ventricle to weaken and therefore has to be corrected. The two problems are corrected in 2 very different ways and they cannot correct one without correcting the other. The VSD is corrected in an operating room with open heart surgery. The narrowing of the pulmonary arteries is best corrected in a cardiac catheter which is done in a special cardiac catheter lab. The operating room and the cath lab are very different rooms and therefore doing the 2 procedures simultaneously the way Coop's need done are difficult to do. However, wouldn't you know it, but CMH has been preparing for the past 5 years for situations like this and in late August are to have completed 2 new rooms that basically have combined the operating room needs and the cardiac catheter lab. Dr. Kaine's opinion is that they will wait until these rooms are complete and then will schedule Coop's surgery therefore looking at fall time. The other repair that is still pending is the valve that needs placed in Coop's Pulmonary Artery. The great news is that the artery is probably big enough to insert an adult valve. This is amazing to us and could extend Coop's next surgery after this one to 10 years!!!!! This sounds much better than the 3 to 5 years were had been told before. The bad news is the valves do wear out so this will continue to be something Coop will have replaced for the rest of his life. It is also unclear and up to our surgeon as to whether they will insert the valve in the upcoming surgery or once again wait. There are people the function without this valve at all but Dr. Kaine did not think this would be advisable to Cooper's situation. All in all the news is good and nothing we didn't expect. I think each time we review his case it becomes more clear to Terry and I. We actually understood the film and pictures this time which was nice.

So the plan is to be home late this afternoon and we will go from there. Dr. Kaine, Dr. O'Brien and their colleagues will review his case next Friday and then Dr. Kaine will call and let us know for sure what they will do.

They just came in to run his vitals and he has spike a little fever but nothing to be alarmed about. It is probably just the anesthetics. They will continue to watch him.

COOPER IS IN HIS CARDIAC CATH....

Well everything is going great. We got here around 7:30 am and got checked in and on our way to the cath lab. Everyone is so nice and wonderful here. They decided this time to give him versed (sp?) before we left him. They gave it to him orally and he just went off to Lala land. It was so funny, it was like he could hardly keep his eyes open and he didn't even cry when he left us. He was much more attached to this Magna Doodle then he was to us so they let him take it with him into surgery. He was still writing as they entered the cath lab. It made it so much easier for both him and us. They will update us in 45 min and the procedure will last around 2 hours. It does not sound like we will know much about what they plan to do from here for a couple weeks because our heart surgeon will not be at conference tomorrow so they probably won't review his case until next Friday. We will know today though if there is anything going on that we do not already know about. So everything is going well and we'll keep you posted!

EVERYTHING IS SET FOR COOP'S CATHETAR....

We had Coop's pre op appointment today and everything is a go for tomorrow. He is up to a whopping 19lbs and his SAT level was at 85 which is great for him. They ran through pre admission pretty fast. Every doctor we had to meet with basically said we had been through this enough that if we have any questions just ask otherwise they weren't going to bore us with the same scenarios they had been over with us before. They were all great and all fell in love with Coop. The Nurse Practitioner that reviews Cooper's history with us said they left something out and she was going to make sure they put it in his file and that was "he is absolutely adorable!" It was sweet. Review his history is always something for us, just to hear them read back to us in medical terms what he has been through and to hear terms like, "narcotic dependency" when they were referring to how he became dependent on his meds after his second surgery and he had to go through withdraw from them and "viability unlikely" when they reviewed the time he was on ECMO and they were not sure he was going to come off, these terms are just deafening. It is also amazing how Terry and I can spit out his procedures, defects, meds and their dilution and dosage and even what they will be doing in the upcoming surgery. It all is just part of Cooper just like every parent knows every birth mark and their little ones favorite toys. Anyway, all in all it went great and we are ready for tomorrow. We will leave hear at 6:30 am and check in at 7:30am. His procedure begins at 9:30am I believe.

Raelynn is edge. She has asked me over and over again to please call her if anything goes wrong and has reminded me that she will take care of everything here while I am gone. She is excited Grandma and Aunt Karli are coming so that helps a little. Tonight when I put her to bed she said a special prayer to little Cooper and asked God to watch over little Cooper and make sure nothing goes wrong because she loves him and his just learning to talk. It was so sweet. I love both of them so much!

STEPH HAS MOVED IN.....

We had another great weekend, busy but great. Steph has moved in and I think is feeling a little overwhelmed. She said we are so busy and never stop, I laughed and said Yes, welcome to my world! Last night we took the kids to the KU Baseball Game and that was fun but they tired early and we only stayed for 4 innings.




This morning Steph got up at 4:30am with me and worked out. It was different having someone awake with me but it was kind of fun. We got home and we all got ready for work and left. Steph thought the house was too quiet and did not have anything to do because she did not start at the office until Wednesday. So she got dressed and came to work and asked Tom if she could start today. I cracked up. She is so my sister! I would have done the same thing and what made me laugh even harder was Tom said yes. So today was her first day and I think she did great. I don't know if she is catching on quickly or I am just more relaxed but it is so much easier to train someone you already know. When she did something no so bright I could just look at her and laugh and call her an idiot and knew it was no big deal, usually can't call a new employee an idiot and expect them to stay very long :) After work she headed to an interview at a local Bar and Grill and they hired her on the spot. So she is set up for the summer with 2 jobs, a new work out routine and our family chaos. It should be fun!

Raelynn and Cooper invented a new game this weekend. As they explained it to me, it is called Sketchers. They use this big bouncy ball like an exercise ball and throw it at my breakable things. Yes, that's right, they throw it at my breakable things. The goal of the game is to catch the ball before it actually hits the breakable item. When I told Raelynn nothing better get broken she looked at me as if I were the idiot and said "it won't Mom because them we would lose the game!" The good news is they did not lose the game and nothing got broke. I still am not a fan of the new game.

Mom is headed down Wednesday night to be here for Coop's Cardiac Catheter. I'll talk more about that later, just don't feel like worrying about that tonight!

THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS PERFECT AT THE KEEFER HOME....

I know I often sound like our children are perfect and aside from winning the lottery there is hardly anything that could make my world more perfect and for the most part this is truly how I feel. However, things are not always perfect at the Keefer home. Last night from the time I picked the kids up to the time they went to bed they were grouchy! They were so tired and it was so ridiculous I could not help but record their meltdown. Usually they tag team but very rarely are they both hysterical at the same time but last night was a special treat. By 6:15pm I was calling Terry begging him to come home and had already poured myself a glass of wine! Although I sympathized with their distress I could not help but find humor in it. This is what makes most people crazy and instead I had to record it. I made the kids watch it later and they both laughed! We decided last night Raelynn would start taking naps in the afternoon again and tonight was a much better night.

Today Raelynn took Daddy on a school field trip to Cici's Pizza. They got to tour the restaurant and see how they make the pizzas. Then the kids got to make some pizzas of their own. Raelynn had a great time and ate like a pig from what I hear. They came to visit me afterwards and they both were all smiles. It always kills me when I am not able to go with her to school functions but it also makes me so proud that she has such a good Daddy that can be there for her too.

"HE IS SO CUTE HE MAKE MY HEART TICKLE"

Tonight was one of those nights you sit and wonder how it will be 10 years from now. ......Tonight was one of those nights that Raelynn acted twice her age and was more than picture perfect. From helping with dinner, to bathing Cooper to caring for herself you would have never guessed she was 3! After Raelynn had successfully bathed, washed her hair, conditioned her hair, drained the water, picked up all the toys, sprayed down the shower with Tilex, dried herself off, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair and was in the process of getting her pajamas on she looks over at Cooper who was as usual being completely silly and ornery she says to me as she is giggling, "Mom Cooper is so cute he makes my heart tickle!" What an adorable thing to say and she is so right. You can't help but look at Cooper and smile. He is visually cute but his personality has given him a whole new set of characteristics that you can't help but fall in love with. On Sunday I actually chose to do very little and during Cooper's nap he started to fuss. I went in and he was standing in his crib. I picked him up and he nuzzled right in and was back asleep. Usually I just lay him back down but Sunday I decided to sit and hold him instead. Raelynn was downstairs with Terry and it was just Cooper and I which never happens. As I held his petite little body and he seemed to be hugging me in his sleep I could not help but notice how wonderful his little hair smelled. It wasn't a fabricated smell from his shampoo or his gel that we use to spike his hair but it was just Cooper. I realized that both the kids have a special fragrance and to sit and snuggle with them and barry your face in their fine soft hair and just absorb every part of them was something I did not do enough. If you have ever held Cooper close you also know to feel his beating heart against your chest is unique. We are not sure why, but you can feel his heart beat strongly in his chest. It always feels like it is closer to the outside of his body than anyone else's because you can feel it so distinctly. On Sunday it was just a reminder of how blessed I was to be sitting there snuggling with him at all. It was humbling on Mother's Day to just realize it is an honor to be a mother and I needed nothing more on that day to make my Mother's Day perfect than to be sitting right there, holding Cooper and hearing Raelynn's constant chatter to Terry in the basement; well that and the big caramel sundae from Dairy Queen we had later in the afternoon :)

Our whole weekend was good. Saturday we left the house around 8 am and went to a pancake feed. It was at the park and there was a fire truck there so what more could the kids wish for.

We played for awhile and then headed out to run some errands and then off to riding lessons. Raelynn is having fun and I think doing pretty well. After her lesson Coop got on and wouldn't get off!

We finally managed to escape without any tears and headed home to eat, nap and get ready for the evening. Raelynn and I headed to a dance recital and Terry and Coop were off to a benefit concert for some friends of ours. The recital was a lot of fun and we saw some great performances. I don't know much about dance but it was fun to see some of the little people with such big personalities. Raelynn and I met up with Terry and Cooper at the concert. Come to find out, our son is a real lady's man. There was a dance floor at the place where the concert was held and mostly the little kids were dominating it early on. Cooper was dancing and listening to the bands and loving it. What we were loving was watching him actually go up to little girls and dance with them and try to talk with them. He scared two little girls off but did not seemed too upset by the rejection. When our friends son, Kaden, tried to dance with him, he shook his head no and went right up to the next little girl in line and danced with her. It was truly hysterical. Kaden does what they call the booty dance and it is honestly the funniest and cutest thing ever. I am sure this is why Coop would not dance with him, he did not want to be out danced by anyone. At this point Coop's dancing consists of stopping his right foot and bouncing up and down! We finally got him off the dance floor for a little while but he was still unstoppable. He was walking around the crowd high fiving the guys and blowing kisses to the girls. He is really too much. I thought he would be our bashful one....who would have known! It was a lot of fun.

Steph will be moving in for the summer this weekend. We are looking forward to having her! She seems excited too and I am positive she will add some good laughs to our household! We are also preparing ourselves for Coop's Cardiac Catheter next week and just hope things go well. Speaking of the Catheter, my Mom shared a great story with me this weekend. My parents live in a small town and we all know how rumors run in a small town. Well as you know Cooper's name came from my maiden name. My Dad is often referred to as Coop or Cooper back in their town. Well apparently little Cooper's cardiac catheter got turned into my Dad suffering heart issues and going in for a cardiac catheter! My Mom got a call from their pastor on Saturday asking if my Dad was doing ok. She was very perplexed and said yes that he was fine. Then the pastor told her the story he had heard. When Mom told Dad that evening he laughed and said he had 3 people that day ask him if he was ok or about his upcoming cardiac catheter. I love it, how funny is that! Anyway, it gave us all a good laugh. Our little Cooper can stir things up 6 hours from here!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really, Wow, is all I can think to say about the past week. As much as I love my job, it is weeks like this that make me so jealous of stay at home Moms. Life would be so less complicated. First, check out the kids in their new clothes from Grandma! I literally had told Terry on Tuesday night that we had to go shopping for the kids. Neither one of them had any summer clothes. Then on Wednesday there shows up a package from Grandma full of clothes and Cooper's first pair of crocs. It was a May Day gift and the kids were thrilled and they looked sooo cute in every outfit!

Wednesday Terry played in a charity golf tournament sponsored by Farmers Insurance to benefit the March of Dimes. Therefore he left really early. Terry usually takes Raelynn to school and we tag team all morning getting the kids ready. So when Terry leaves early there is no tag teaming and I have one additional stop to make before work. I was dreading the morning but little Miss Raelynn decided to be the perfect big sister and completely helped with everything. It was adorable. She not only got her self completely ready but then tried to help Coop too. She was just hilarious! "Come on Buddy, let's pick out your clothes while Mom finishes her hair". "Do you want Sissy to do your hair?" "Let's set your shoes by the door until we're ready to go." This is what i got the joy of listening to all morning. It was fabulous. The bad part was Coop was pulling on his ear and a little fussy. He didn't sleep well through the night and I was sure the ear infection was back. I had our neighbor who is a P.A. come over Wednesday morning and look at his ears and she couldn't see the left well at all but thought the right looked a little red. I wasn't able to take him to the doctor because I was the only one at work and of course Terry was golfing so at 4pm I finally got him to the doctor. The good news is he looked fine. Even some of the fluid seemed to have went down so maybe we are going to avoid tubes after all.

Thursday things did not slow down at all. Before work I had to deliver a carrot cake to the church for a funeral that I had made the night before. At noon I gave a talk to the local Kiwanis Club for Cooper's Cause which went very well. Then right after work I picked the kids up and took them to Terry's store and was off for a celebration dinner and drinks with the logistics committee for the March of Dimes. It had been a while since I had been anywhere without the kids and it was fun. The group we work with are really great it was a nice evening. I headed home about 8:15pm, stopped to get milk for Cooper and made it home just in time to put Raelynn to bed. I walk in and Raelynn and Cooper had both cut their toes and had band aids, still am not clear on how that happened, Raelynn had a fever and Terry was trying to just breath. With a smile, I gave Raelynn some Motrin, read her story and put her to bed. Then it was time to kiss on Cooper, read him a story and put him to bed. I think Terry was exhausted. It is good for him to have to do the evening chaos every once in awhile :)! Raelynn fought the fever all night and this morning it seemed to be under control. She seems to get a fever anytime she has any little old thing. It is just how her body fights things off. She was not 100 % but she did not want to miss school. Today was the annual Mother's Tea and Art Show. The Mother's were invited to school at 10:45am to have snack and attend the classes art show. I found out about this last week and I was scheduled to be alone at work today. How could Raelynn be the only one there without a Mommy!! I just couldn't let that happen. Tom was gracious enough to interrupt his crazy Sertoma BBQ weekend to come in while I went to Pre school and I am so glad he did. We got there and Raelynn had made me a calendar for next year and each month had a picture on it made out of her hand print. It was incredible.

I don't think her teachers could ever know how wonderful it was. It was so cute and Raelynn was so proud. I almost started to cry and was relieved when another Mom, who I have befriended, said she was going to cry. We are those completely cheesy Moms who love this stuff. After we ate the delicious snack the kids had prepared for us, they showed a video of pictures from throughout the year. It was a great video and her teachers made a copy for each of us. They are truly awesome teachers! Then it was off to the art show. I had no idea how cool this would be. Throughout this large room they had the several of the kids' art work displayed and presented in a very nice and professional manner. Then each class had a table where a canvas painting was displayed that the entire class had worked on. Then the had a silent action to purchase that piece of art work. I got one of the pieces that Raelynn's class painted with Popsicle sticks. I am so excited to get it. It really was cute and just to have something like that will be really neat as she gets older. I remember a time when I thought I would dread school functions like this and now I cannot think of another place I would rather be. It was truly a great time!

Then it was back to work. It was so busy and then I got a call from CMH. Guess what? Like usual Cooper's cardiac catheter got changed. Now we have to go in on the 20th for pre admission and Cooper is the first case on the 21st. For Cooper this is probably better because it gets him warmed up and introduced to things on Wednesday before the scary stuff starts. Also, we have to be there by 7 on Thursday and Cooper can't have anything to drink or eat after 2 am. So the fact that he will only be awake an hour or so of that time will be good. It is hard to explain to an 18 month old why you are not letting him have anything to drink when he is used to drinking a ton when he first wakes up in the morning. So anyway, my stomach was in knots as I talked to them. This procedure is really no big deal but I just can't get out of my head the family we know that lost their little girl in a cardiac catheter procedure. But really..... Cooper has survived 2 open heart surgeries and ECMO, what's another catheter to him.

So tomorrow we start our morning off at a pancake feed for Sertoma, then riding lessons, then a friend's dance recital and then a benefit concert for a good friends who's husband is suffering from cancer. It will be a super busy day but all for great causes. Then of course there is Mother's Day which I love because it is all about me, ha! I have been telling Raelynn all week what would make a perfect Mother's Day so we'll see how she does :) The truth is I have a perfect Mother's Day every day of my life!

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LEAVE A 3 YEAR OLD IN CHARGE....

Tonight was a goofy night. Raelynn and Cooper decided they would wrestle. It was so cute because Raelynn would put Cooper carefully down on the floor as to not hurt him but the rougher she was, the more Coop laughed.



After dinner Raelynn said she wanted to take a bath with Cooper and she would get him ready. At the time I thought this was a great idea so I could clean up dinner why they got ready for bath. However, this is what happened.....

What you can't see in the picture was that they both smelled of little girl perfume and had make up on their faces! Yes even Cooper. My poor little boy! What a great night of laughter!

HAPPY MONDAY........

The weekend was great once again. Saturday Raelynn had another riding lesson and this time Cooper got on the horse too. He loved it and didn't want to get off. It was very cute! Sunday we spent much of the afternoon outside working in the yard so we were all wore out Sunday night. Monday morning 7am the phone rings and Lisa's husband is sick. I called Mary Beth but she had taken a couple extra kids and was full. I text my friend, Carrie, and then called Tom to see if I could bring Coop in this morning. Of course he was great about it and Coop and I headed to the office and Raelynn and Daddy off to preschool. Coop really did pretty good at the office. Then about 10:30am in walks my dear friend Carrie. She is the most laid back, fly by the seat of your pants person I know and she gladly swooped Coop up and they were off. Raelynn joined them after preschool and they all had a great time. Carrie is one of those friends that we may not talk for weeks and then one day we decide to have lunch and it seems that we had never neglected each other. She is a great friend and today was just proof again of that. Her daughter and the kids both had swimming lessons so I met them there after work. Carrie was done long before us so we said our thank you's and goodbye's and she was off to pick up her other daughter at dance. An hour later Raelynn, Cooper and I head at to the car to finally head home. I let Raelynn in and she says "oh no Mom", with little attention to her I walk around the car to let Cooper in and as soon as I open the door, I too said Oh No! Carrie still had Coop's car seat. We finally made it home around 7:30. Everyone ate, bathed and off to bed. I can only hope the rest of the week is a little calmer but by the looks of our schedule, this is how the entire month stacks up. Fun times! The truth is we have much to look forward to this month and should be exhausting and fun.