Another Stellar Weekend

It was a proud weekend in the Hulewsky household. Two major milestones for our twins Nik and Leah. Nik was accepted at Columbia which made him very happy (Jamie posted already). And then there is Leah who I thought had stopped developing. Leah with the bent thumbs cut her own hair. A proud moment and quite a major milestone for her. Clumps of hair on the floor and me with no idea where they came from. I thought they might be strays from a haircut Faith gave someone since I couldn't imagine Leah was even able to use scissors. That funny girl never ceases to amaze me. ha...

St Patty's Day

Karlee standing on the light "lighting up mine dress momma!"

Allan, the model!

Joleen, so smiley! :)

Colbie Rae being her cute self!

(Needless to say, taking a picture of all 4 doesn't work so well!)

My mom (Carrie) used to make us all matching dresses until we started telling her not too! So, she was excited to be able to make the 3 girls matching St Patricks Day dresses! They turned out so cute & we are glad they have a Grandma with such a wonderful talent!!! :)

Congratulations!

Congratulations Nik!!!!




We are so excited for you!!! Whatever/wherever you choose to go, we just thought it was so exciting to get accepted to such a wonderful school as Columbia!

Congratulations to Jessika, on getting accepted to the Masters program at USC!

More Flowers!!!

Thank you Puente's. These roses are beautiful. Flowers totally brighten things up. I took a photo of Emily holding these but the lighting was terrible and you couldn't realy see her or the flowers.

Spontaneous Delight

For the past year I've been taking turns teaching "Joy School" with three other moms who live within a few blocks of us. The idea behind Joy School is not to focus on teaching kids letters, numbers or other pre-K skills but to teach them principles that will help them have joy and be happy throughout their lives. In some ways it's a parenting class because a lot of the principles are things that kids have inherently- a natural curiousity, a desire to try new things- that parents maybe don't know how to direct appropriately so their kids lose it. Other things, like the joy of the earth, the joy of order, sharing, service, etc. are things that we learn about.

I really love the curriculum and I feel like it's given me so many great tools as a parent (let's just say I still have a lot to learn) but the other day we did a class called 'Spontaneous Delight'. It still makes me giggle to think of the name. Usually I'm kind of anxious about helping the kids to learn some kind of principle, but the goal for this class was just to have fun together, and to learn that just as it's important to be still and quiet something, sometimes it's also really good to giggle and laugh together. It was the funnest time I've ever had teaching a class. We just did lots of silly things (like popping popcorn without the lid on and painting with our feet which freaked them out initially before we had lots of fun with that) and had a ball. I wish that there were more things about how to have spontaneous delight... I think that life would be a lot less stressful. It's helped me to have more fun with my kids though, which has definitely been amazing. We're still trying to figure out what to do for preschool next year- our group will all be off in other places. I'm sure whatever it is won't be quite as fun as Joy School ;)

Trees...

Berry bushes are doing well...

I don't know what tree this is but it's looking good...

Fig tree looks good...even looks like there is a little fig forming.

One of the sad deer injured trees. The only one with any growth on it.

Cherry tree looks good. Not much of a photographer so I'm not even sure if you can see the buds.

Another cherry tree photo which is not very good at all. Obviously we don't cut our grass very often. We did water the trees and I will put another shot of fertilizer on them. No deer so that's the best part of all since they are protected this time. Yahoo for that...

Beautiful Flowers

I'm not much of a photographer nor am I much of an florist but my co-workers sent these flowers for Emily. They are so beautiful I wanted to share them with all of you. I have such wonderful co-workers. I so lucky to have a job with good insurance and such good friends. I'm vacillating between gratitude and self pity right now. Not a good place to be but things will feel much better when Emily is home and we aren't making that long trek to San Francisco. I really hope her blood thinner levels are right on tomorrow so I can go pick her up...

She's alive!!!

Emily the center of the world!

Leah so happy to be visiting the hospital but not staying... Ha...

Friday was a big day for Emily. Marge, Jenifer, Rachel, Jaynann, Sam, Hayley, Alyssa and Zander all came to visit. Then we came with Emily and Grace's friend Kacee as a surprise. Emily was surprised. Leah was so happy to see Emily and she was so good in the hospital. Leah was TERRIBLE on Saturday but that is a whole other story and I was so relieved she was good on Friday. One doc said she might come home Saturday. Another said maybe Sunday. Now the story is she will come home Monday. I'm exhausted and grateful that Mary is willing to stay over night tonight. I will go to the city by the bay tomorrow and hope to bring Emily back with me this time. She is doing well and thanks to one and all for your prayers and love.

ICU and no view...

Emily got wheeled up to the ICU about 5pm. She was looking totally out which she was. She looked so much better than Violet did all those times but it was still very emotional to see little Emily completely out.

Lots of medical equipment and lots stuff hooked up to Emily.

I left to come back to Sacramento before Emily came back to life. She was in very capable hands and Mary took this photo of her. Before leaving I signed papers for Emily to be in a study since this is a teaching hospital I thought it was the least I could do since the doctors did the hard stuff and we got the best possible outcome. I hugged the surgeon. I'm not a hugger of strangers but I was just so grateful. I asked him if I could hug him and he said it was ok. He was so impressed with Emily and her mature decisions. He showed me that he made the most minimal incision possible since Emily was brave and not concerned with the idea of having a scar down the middle of her chest. The entire medical staff was wonderful...

UCSF a room with a view!!!

Emily chillin the night before the surgery!!!

Beautiful view of San Francisco from the hospital room.

Not the best photo since I don't have photo skills like Melissa but you could see the Golden Gate bridge from this window. Fancy digs totally 5 star accommodations...

I got a call at work Monday morning the 14th of March at about 10am. "We have a cancellation can you bring Emily in by 11:30am for surgery tomorrow?" My response...no. After explaining the distance and the drive situation they offered us a 1:30pm check in which we took. Poor Emily had no idea why she was being pulled out of school early and of course she was a bit emotional and off balance as I must admit so was I. We tracked down Mary and then it was off to the big city so Emily could get her heart fixed. We got there late which apparently wasn't a problem since we had to wait a long time for the room to be ready. We met lots of other really nice shell shocked people being admitted to the hospital and we all promised to pray for each other.

Finally got into the room. Mary was distraught since there was no TV in the room. I'm sure she was distraught for other reasons as well. Then the parade of medical professionals giving instructions and information regarding the surgery. Emily's nurse said only parents could stay over night (we later found out that was incorrect) so Mary says "I'm the birth parent" so of course I pipe in with "I'm the legal parent" so we both got to stay. The rule is only one person with the patient over night in the room so I opted for the deluxe accommodations of the women's sleep area room M666. A converted conference room very uncomfortable not to mention the devils number part. Next morning the roll Emily out of the room at about 6:40am and down to the preop area. Sedation and more doctors. The resident the fellow and the real doc all came by to check on Emily with the two moms just happy to be answering questions. Emily rolled into the OR at about 7:30am and Mary and I begin the long wait. Once again we met lots of nice people waiting for their loved ones. After what seemed a long long time the nurse came to tell us the surgeon was able to repair Emily's valve so no replacement. What a relief.

Double Trouble

Just had to post these pics of Jack and Christian. Melissa is improving with her photography, but such cute subjects make it easier!

Happy 25th Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to Anatole and Louise! We love you and hope you have a wonderful anniversary!a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2r86bdoJ9RfuCnBpqvR6Lr7Jq4TYMbmlhrKYvYCsaKAfnGJ-zLPqHRrQRHdLVFji-ISDk8Oz99GbXSRkjRw6WRROIQWmblbeEkREhymhWAm7pl3shZE2k1-ie0jsL6FzHMPDHBBChyYg/s1600-h/DSCN0492.JPG">

( I would post a picture from your wedding or reception but I dont have any)