Book signings, Good Things Utah, and Clinic.......Hawaii here we come!

What a crazy week we've had!  We're finally out of school, YAHOO!  I do love teaching, but I do love taking a break too.  It will be nice to get caught up on some things again.  As of Friday, May 24th, our summer has officially begun.  We started it off with Abby's birthday.  My youngest kid is now 14 years old, not very young at all.  Abby wanted to go shopping for her birthday, so we planned to go when we were in Salt Lake, the shopping is so much better there.  But, we did go out to dinner to celebrate on the 24th.  Here's Abby when she was almost 1 year old.  Isn't she so incredibly cute and she hasn't changed a bit :)  Every birthday we have with Abby is a miracle, one we'll never forget!

We went to Salt Lake on Sunday because we were doing a book signing at Sugarhouse Park that afternoon.  It was perfect weather outside and it was fun.  The turnout was about what we expected, but I sure missed seeing all of my heart mom friends that day!  It was fun to see some friends from high school, swimmers from the University of Utah swim team that swam when I did, teachers I taught with before we moved to St. George, a couple of heart friends, and of course family.  I wish I would've taken pictures of everyone, but it was too crazy!  At least I got a few.  If you took pictures, will you please share them on Facebook so that we'll have them too?

Abby told me to try to look official!

Great pic, I know........

Beautiful Abby!

My two nieces and my sister-in-law Deedee,  and my brothers legs.

This is Vicki aka Tweedle Dum, we swam together at the University of Utah.  I, of course, was Tweedle Dee!

Monday morning we had to make our appearance on Good Things Utah.  We were both so nervous.  I had never seen the show, and we were told it was filmed in front of a live audience, so we even more scared.  We were supposed to be there at 8:30, the show started at 9:00....so of course we showed up at 8:15.  When we walked into the studio they were filming the news segment that was on right before the show, we both were pretty surprised that we were on the actual set!  We met the staff and were told that we were going to be first, so we had to get our microphone clips on.  The "Live audience" turned out to be a small set of bleachers with the other stars of the show that day sitting on them, that was a relief!  Overall, other than me looking like a beached whale, I thought it went okay.  Abby was perfect of course.  We weren't thrilled with the choice of questions, and the host kept asking about meeting the "donor."  Well, obviously, we will never meet the donor, but hopefully we'll meet their family.  But, I think we did a good job getting the word out about organ donation......and I will probably never eat again.  

This was right before we went on.

Abby loves Australian guys, so she had to get a picture with the Aussie host.   Not a good picture of him, but Abby was in heaven when he said, "Good bye daaaahhling!"

Mom, Dad, and Britt-This is for you!

We spent the rest of the day shopping and going to a movie, it was Abby's day for sure!  Then of course, it was time for clinic.  We were so worried.  Monday night, after shopping, Abby had a horrible night.  Her feet were so swollen they were killing her, her stomach was hurting, and she had a horrible headache.  We thought something was up.  Thankfully, she woke up feeling a little bit better.  Clinic was perfect!  Abby's echo looked fabulous, her labs were all perfect, and even her kidney function was looking better.  It was actually a very quick and easy clinic.  We were also given the okay for Hawaii!  I have to admit that I'm a little nervous though because there isn't a transplant center in Hawaii.  The transplant team kept stressing that if anything happened, we take Abby to the nearest hospital and then call them so that they can tell us our next move.  They also emailed us a copy of clinic notes from today and the results of her echo too.  Abby will have to be slathered with sunscreen and keep tons of water in her as well, she gets dehydrated so easily.  Abby even asked them if she could have a nightly IV to keep fluids in her, they all laughed of course.  I'm sure that things will okay, but it's good to have a plan just in case.  So finally, after almost 2 years of waiting, we will get to go on the trip that we missed while Abby was waiting for her heart.  I kind of feel like it's well deserved! I think Britt and Brock are just as excited to get a break too!  

While we were driving home, I got the dreaded call.  They were calling to schedule Abby's annual biopsy.  It will be on Friday, June 28th.  For those of you that don't know, this is a big deal.  This isn't like the one she had last November through her neck, it's the big one through her leg like we did last May, it's much more thorough.   If something isn't right, this is when we'll find out.  It's actually quite nerve wracking, but I'm not going to think about it once while we're in Hawaii.  That's going to be our complete relax and no worry trip!

For those of you that have asked, here's the link for you to purchase "Abby's Miracle" on Amazon Abby's Miracle.  We love to look on Amazon and see who's interested and who's purchased it our book.  It is also available to Kindle and Nook now too.  Thank you to everyone that has bought the book, it helps with all of Abby's medicine copays.  We will probably do another St.  George book signing when we get back from our trip, and we have a sweet story on KUTV news that will be coming up soon as well, probably on Abby's 2-year heart anniversary.  Thanks for staying with us, things are good :)