The ultimate roller coaster ride

I have officially submitted my application for Mother of the Year. I think I stand an excellent chance to walk away with the honor this year after this last week. It is one of those events that I just keep replaying in my mind, kicking myself for being so dumb.

Kaiya had her second to last gymnastics meet of the season on Wednesday night in Ft. Collins. She has worked so dang hard with her eye on her main goal of making it to "state". She had to score a 34.0 in the All-Around to make it and she has come so close, but just missed it a couple times. I kept telling her that it didn't matter if she made it, that it was her first year on the team, etc., etc. but, of course, she didn't really hear me.

Wednesday night was a late start day for school meaning they didn't have to be there until just before lunch. Kaiya slept in and was kind of a couch potato that morning. She's had a cold for a few days and a cough, but nothing that kept her from doing her normal stuff. It was a gorgeous day, so I had planned to walk the girls to school.

Clue #1 that something wasn't right--Kaiya begged me to drive them. I picked them up after school and Kaiya told me she was so tired, but excited for her meet. She got ready and we headed to Ft. Collins. The whole drive there, she just laid with her head resting on the window--clue #2. We got to the gym and she just didn't look right. She couldn't articulate what was wrong, but just said she was wiped out. She talked her coaches into letting her skip the warm up and decided to just do her routines cold turkey. Clue #3--about half way through the meet, I noticed that the only way she would stand is if she was hunched over (known as tripoding in medicine).

She asked me if we could say a little prayer, which we did, and I had already decided I would take her in to the doc the next day. She had an awesome meet and gave me the thumbs up before her bar routine telling me she felt fine. She finished the meet winning the bars, but it looked like she was 0.4 short of qualifying to state. She was crushed, but I was more worried about her breathing. I noticed that she was starting to work really hard to breathe--ribs sucking in, breathing really fast, etc.

The drama intensified when her coach told me that they had flashed her floor score wrong (there was a little girl who must have been dyslexic because she kept posting scores backwards). Instead of an 8.05, she had actually received an 8.50. She qualified!!! She thought she didn't make it, so when I told her the good news, she just started bawling--hunched over and all. At that point, I was thinking it was time to get her to urgent care. I got lucky that my work bag was in the car, so I listened to her lungs and she wasn't moving any air on her right side. At this point, I'm getting pretty nervous. She sat folded over in half the whole way home and I called work on the way and found out that the Children's Hospital satellite facility that is close to us only had 6 kids there, so off we went.

The doc at Children's thought the same thing I did--pneumonia (because one side of her lungs sounded so much worse than the other). We walked back for a chest x-ray and she puked all over the place and now she was white as a sheet. Within a couple minutes, the doc came back to tell me that it wasn't pneumonia but that she was in the middle of a severe asthma attack. Her lungs were so hyperinflated from air trapping that her diaphram was flat as a pancake. Doug has mild asthma as does his mom, so I wasn't shocked, but she has never had a problem before in her life.

She was admitted overnight and started on round the clock breathing treatments, oxygen and steroids. We were hoping to go home the next day, but she just took a while to rebound, so we stayed two nights. She got excellent care from the staff there (I'm the first to admit that we took advantage of her being an employee's kid) and finally got to come home on Friday afternoon. She was so cute because everyone that walked into her room got to hear her say that she qualified.

My brother, Brandon, taught Kaiya at an early age to answer the question of "Who's tougher than Kaiya?" to say, "NOBODY!". I think he nailed it when he asked her that question this time.

Looking at her x-ray, I have absolutely no idea how she got through that meet. She had no business being there. :( So, on behalf of the academy, I will politely accept my Mother of the Year award and try to move on!

Right before the meet--squatting down

Terrible picture quality, but this was her comfort position

After her floor routine

After finding out she qualified!

Matching the sheet color at Children's

Getting some needed relief!

Halloween . . . finally!

Halloween is the 2nd favorite holiday around our house, second only to Christmas. My girls usually start planning their costumes in July. They change their minds a dozen or so times and then once they get their costumes, they hang in their room in plain sight awaiting the day that they can be worn. Thankfully, they got to wear them to school on Friday AND again on Saturday night. They decided a long time ago that they wanted to be something that went together and finally came up with Dorothy and Glinda. Kinley made a pretty cute Dorothy and Kaiya sat in hot rollers for an hour to get the right amount of poof for her big hair.

School party

Cute kindergartners . . check out Elvis

Cooper decided this would be his last year trick-or-treating in the hood with the girls and he finally came up with a rapper costume that worked out pretty nice. He was a referee on Friday at school, but he decided that was too boring. It was spirit week at school the whole week and I was pretty impressed that he busted out of his shell and had me do a pigtail hairdo for crazy hair day and wore a princess crown for hat day.

I got a night out with friends for the annual Witches Night Out. It's worth it just to see the looks on peoples' faces when we all walk into a restaurant! So fun.

So glad it was a warm day and semi-warm evening. The kids have more candy than they know what to do with (much will be donated to hungry nurses at work) and Cooper loved going to a party with his friends and his first school dance on Friday night. Did I mention that he is growing up too fast?

Ready to go!

Complete with Toto in her basket

Come and get it!!

A tale of two siblings

An October blizzard brought us over a foot of snow and a snow day and a variety of reactions at the Lindhardt household.

Cooper's reaction . . .

. . . and Kinley's

Kaiya's reaction fell somewhere in the middle. For me? Just made me dream harder of beaches in Hawaii . . . three weeks from today!!!

I still can't believe we just had a snow day in October! Snow days were the best when I was a kid, so I tried hard to keep a good spirit today as my kids enjoyed the snow. They played in it for almost 4 hours (except Kinley who lasted about twenty minutes and promptly came back inside and announced she was "frozen to death!") Our house backs up to a ditch and has just enough slope to sled and "snow surf". I think we went through about a gallon of hot cocoa between sled runs. :)

Catching up

It's funny because I haven't felt like I had much catching up to do on the 'ol blog until I pulled out my camera and looked back a few weeks. Guess it all went by so fast that I didn't have time to digest it until now.

In the last 2 weeks, we have

--Attended two NLDS games (still in denial about the outcome)

--Attended two more of Kaiya's gymnastics meets

--Took care of a sick Kinley girl

--Celebrated my dad's birthday with family

--Helped at and watched the 2nd annual Cardiac Kids talent show

--Attended parent/teacher conferences

--Spent more hours online getting ready for HAWAII in a few weeks

I really can't post much about the NLDS games. We froze our butts off, had a blast, and came home so sad. I'm not yet to the point that I can say "next year." Hope that comes soon.

Freezing, but happy to be there!

Kaiya had two meets in two weekends. Last weekend's meet was at Denver University and this weekend was at 5280 Gymnastics, which is where the men's olympian Sasha Artemev trains. Both were great experiences. Kaiya came so close to qualifying for state this weekend, but got robbed by the beam judge. Oh the joys of a sport with subjective judging! She had personal bests on bars and floor, though, so she was super happy.

Watching her do beam is the end of me!

Can't say enough about these coaches!

Holding the team trophy

I was super pleased with the kids' parent teacher conference reports. Always feels good to hear their teachers saying nice things. Kinley is starting to read so well. I love the age when they try to read everything in sight--road signs, cereal boxes, etc. She had to miss a couple days of school with a fever and the general crud that is going around, but she is on the mend. It was pretty cute because Willie wouldn't leave her side while she was sick. I think he liked her extra body heat from the fever. She scared us half to death when she woke up in the middle of the night and announced that her room was on fire. Turned out it was just her body on fire and the night light had lost its cover and was glowing extra bright.

Sick pumpkin

We had a great time going to the Cardiac Kids talent show last night. Amazing what some of these kids can do. Our favorite was the jump roping team. Check out the video--there were awesome!! Watching some of my former patients doing their talents was pretty neat to see, too.

Jumping Eagles in action!

Oh, and T-33 days til Hawaii, but who's counting? We've been busy planning our itinerary. Can't wait!!!!

These hands

Kaiya accomplished a huge goal in gymnastics this last week by mastering a skill called a kip on the bars. She has been working on it since summer and was so excited to finally get it (video forthcoming . . . camera is being dumb).

I was holding her hand while walking somewhere the other day and noticed that her hands felt pretty gross. Hours on the uneven bars will do that to a girl. I snapped a picture of them when we got home. Not exactly the kind of hands the boys will want to hold someday, but I think I'm OK with that. :)

She had her second meet last weekend and improved her all-around score by almost a full point. She had one little glitch on bars, but still finished fifth. She also finished sixth in the all-around. She is racking up the medals and loving every minute of it.

Guest of honor (twice!)

Sometimes, membership has its privileges. Such was the case on Friday night when Cooper got to be the guest of honor at the Chatfield High School football game in Denver. Their head coach is the husband of a wonderful gal with whom I serve on the board of Cardiac Kids (a volunteer

organization at Children's that hosts fun events for cardiac families and raises awareness about pediatric heart defects and disease). She approached me a few weeks ago and asked if Cooper would be interested in being a guest of honor at the game. That meant being on the field for the game, and going into the locker room with the players before the game and at halftime. Um, yeah . . I think we can arrange that! Chatfield was ranked #2 in the state in 5A going into the game and they beat up on Westminster in a big way winning 56-8.

Last year when Cooper had his pacemaker surgery, Tracy brought a signed football from all the players and a shirt. Coop has worn that shirt so much it almost has holes. So, he already loved this team. Not only does Chatfield have an outstanding team, they are the neatest group of kids you'll ever meet (in large part because of their head coach). These kids, along with the pom squad, have volunteered at many of our Cardiac Kids functions and fundraisers and they do it with a smile on their face.

Before the game, Doug and Cooper squeezed into the locker room with the players and coaches and the head coach, Bret, proceeded to talk about what it means to play with heart. He

introduced Cooper and told his story, including that it is hard for him that he can't play football. He talked about what really matters in life and what it means to be given a second chance at life. (OK, I get teary eyed just retelling this story). He presented Cooper with a jersey, hat and shirt. Then, at halftime, the team was so far ahead that he talked to the kids about what it means to win with class and let the JV squad finish out the game. The players were all awesome to Cooper and he certainly had a night to remember! Needless to say, we are Chatfield Charger official fans!!

Coop and I were also guests of honor of Brandon's last week when we got to attend a Rockies game and sit in the front row. This meant a nice buffet dinner in the Coors Clubhouse before the game, padded front row seats, and our own server during the game bringing us treats. Works for me! So fun to see the players up that close and be able to look into their dugout. Though we won't be sitting in these seats for the playoffs, we have tickets in hand and can't wait for some ROCKTOBER!

In the Coors Clubhouse before the game

Looking right into the Rockies dugout

Thanks, Uncle Brandon!

Ah . . the life

I can't believe the kids have been in school more than a month already. It is so good to be back into a routine, albeit a busy one. Between working 1-2 times per week and running the kids to gymnastics, dance and golf, it is nuts around here (like every other mom I talk to!).

Kaiya got to be in a Labor Day parade for her gym and she did cartwheels and back-walkovers all the way down the street. The funniest part of that day was my journey to watch her. I had worked the night before, so I was dead tired, but I wanted to see her perform. So, I went straight from work to the parade route in Louisville. I got there almost an hour early, so I found a nice shady tree, parked my car and fell asleep. I about peed myself an hour later when the Centaurus High School Marching band started warming up right next to my car. Woke up to a tuba six inches from my car window. Sheez!

Handing out frisbees at the parade

Kaiya's cheering section (and candy gatherers)

In our "spare" time, we have enjoyed following our beloved Rockies and now the Broncos. Nothing better than meaningful baseball in September! Not too many people noticed or knew why Cooper got his haircut the way he did, but it was a copycat hair do of Troy Tulowitzki's from the middle of the season. He didn't tell me he was going to have it cut that way when he left with his dad, but I certainly didn't mind!

Cooper comes by his love of sports naturally, and he has been the lucky recipient of many game opportunities. In this week alone, he will go to two Rockies games and one Bronco game thanks to my dad and brother. The poor kid gets up so early for middle school this year, but he is managing his time so well and has been such a huge help around the house.

So, the weekend rolls around and he is so pumped to have a friend over. There is only one problem--it hits 10:00 p.m. and . . . . .

The Tulo stripes