Things are going GREAT!!!!!!!

August is almost over and I have not been updating. Life has just been so busy and so crazy. Not much has happened, Avarie is continuing to do great! She is getting stronger and they started weening her off of her immune suppressing drugs this week. It will be still several months until she is completely off of them, but this is a good start. She hasn't been having any problems, which is amazing. Things have gone better then any of us could have hoped for.
Avarie has begun to walk a little unassisted. Well it was only a little, until today. She had her first outpatient Physical Therapy appointment today and she was so excited about it that she went there walking up and down the hallways showing off and then when she got into the therapy room and saw a play structure and swings and mats everywhere, she went crazy and spent almost 45 minutes at an almost run going on everything. She was upset when it was time to go and was refusing to get off of the play structure. By play structure I mean an actual wooden play structure that the therapist had to climb up after her to help coach her down. And anyone who knows Avarie knows that there is no negotiating or distracting her. That child is going to do whatever she wants to do and when she wants to do it. If you don't give in to her demands then you deal with the tantrum and the glare! So we had both because mommy just doesn't do the give in thing. It was amazing to watch her be a little girl today. She had so much fun. They actually don't plan on doing physical therapy with her after her evaluation today. They think she just needs some time and she will do fine on her own. I am not enthusiastic about that evaluation, I would like her to have a safe place to go to and have them help her work on her walking technique. She walks with her legs about a foot apart and very straight legged. They said with budget cuts that they just don't have the room to do too much with her. I plan on asking for a second opinion from Emanuel. I miss them all anyway, so this will be a good excuse to get us over there.
Life at home has been difficult, but is getting better. Its amazing how much this last year has impacted our family. Its been in ways that I didn't even realize until we were all living back under one roof again. Its getting better, life is starting to stabilize. I love that word Stabilize, its a nice place to be. Now if we can just stay there.
Craig found a job today. He has been out of work since February. He is so excited to go back to work. He loves his children, but he just does not have the patience to deal with the whining all day long.
The kids are excited to start school. Mommy is REALLLLLLLY excited for them to start school. I am also going to be starting school, just one class for right now. I'm scared to do it, I'm not sure how I am going to fit it in, but I have wanted to go back to school for awhile now and its time to start. I guess I will have to reschedule my nervous breakdown. There's just too much to do right now and in the near future to do that. In case your confused on that, I have joked, but been a little serious too that when this whole ordeal was over I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I have had it planned, it was suppose to start on Avarie's day 100 of post transplant follow up care. That is when she is suppose to be out of the woods and be better, we are at almost day 70. There is just no way that I can allow myself my little break down in 30 days from now, darn I'll have to plan for next year sometime. Maybe I'll have money for Hawaii by then. I've never been and when I get really stressed out that is where I mentally go. I picture myself on a warm beach, it helps me relax. Its where if I had my choice I would have my breakdown. Most likely it will be me in my room telling everyone to let me sleep in 10 more minutes. I guess that will have to do for now.
One last note, I will probably blog about this again and again, but please with school starting back if your children are sick at all, please do not send them to school! Avarie has had all of her vaccines since birth completely wiped out and does not have a functioning immune system. The little bit of immune system she has we are suppressing with drugs to keep it from attacking her body. Any sickness that she gets could be life threatening. So with this swine flu and extra bad regular flu season they are expecting, I am paranoid. She will be vaccinated for both, but the swine flu vaccine will not be ready until mid October, so we have until then to worry. So please if your child is sick AT ALL do not send them to school or take them to church. We have another little girl in our ward that also has Leukemia. She is still undergoing chemo, so she has a compromised immune system too. Please do not go to church with any kind of cough and please be fever free for 48 hours before going. The simple act of staying at home when your sick could save our children's lives. They have undergone sooooo much this last year and I am hoping that people will be extra cautious with such a scary virus going around this year. Avarie and Grace have survived too much to have to try to survive Swine Flu too. OK that was my vent and I'm sorry but I will probably do it again. I am just soooooooooooo scared and a little paranoid about this darn flu.
Oh, one last note. I won't have any new pictures or videos for awhile unless someone else takes them. My sweet little boy tried to take a picture and dropped my camera and broke it. I will try to get my sister in law to take some pics every once in awhile so that everyone can see how well she is doing, rather than just hear about it.