Getting ready for the holidays and cleaning house

I am trying to take advantage of Emily being home from the hospital to get our house cleaned up. It is absolutely embarassing what it looks like right now. We had some friends over last weekend (hi Lacey!) and I realized after they left how horrible my house looks right now. It seems like we are never home long enough to complete a project. Mainly what I do is just organize the crap wherever it is, and try to keep the house functioning. What I am going to start this week is really CLEANING. Not just putting things in neater piles, but finding a home or organizing system for the things. Taking more stuff to Goodwill. Giving more things away. Selling some things we don't need anymore, to make a little extra holiday money.

While doing that, I am soaking up Emily. She is doing pretty good this week! KNOCK ON WOOD she has done well since we came home from the hospital this last stay. She is still on TPN 100%, gets medications in her j-tube, and her g-tube drains to gravity 24 hours. It's actually a gj-tube, although we are discussing with the GI putting in a seperate j-tube sometime in the near future. She relies on a LOT of medications to get through the day happily and without retching and crying all day, but it is what it is. When she is happy and smiles at you and wants to cuddle, it makes every rough moment disappear.

Jacob is doing great as well. We get his grades via email each week, and I can always keep tabs on him. His lowest grade right now is a B+. That makes my mommy heart so happy. He is such a well adjusted, smart, amazing little man. He still takes tennis lessons twice a week and is getting really good at it. It's like watching a real tennis game when they play!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parents house. The food was all delicious, and I am eating leftover Oreo cheesecake as I type this. Yum! It was great to be out of the hospital and surrounded by family and love. We took the kids to Legoland yesterday, and it was so much fun. Emily was able to go on almost every single ride, including the roller coasters! It was a great family day. Hopefully we will continue to be HOME and celebrate the rest of the holiday season here. We pulled down all the Christmas boxes this evening, and will start decorating tomorrow. I love Christmas decorations!

I hope everyone is doing good. I am behind on reading blogs and commenting and catching up. Hopefully I will have time to do that this week, in between laundry/cleaning/Emily. :)