Categories
Family/Travel Travel

Surprising Papa

My grandfather that lives in Charlotte turned 93th in the middle of January. My mom & her two sisters concocted the idea for them to plan to go spend a long weekend with him in February to celebrate his birthday & to have his grands & great-grands arrive Friday to surprise him with a big family visit & dinner Saturday. & it worked!

Tine & her family were the first grands to arrive late afternoon taking Papa by surprise. We left after work Friday & after a bunch of traffic leaving town, made it through north Charlotte without a traffic blip & arrived just after dinner. We snuck as quietly as two super excited 5.5 yr olds can sneak down the hallway & yelled surprise! My cousin Preston & his family showed up not even 5 mins after us. Just in time for the 5 great-grands to help Papa blow out his candles on cake #1!Suzs treats Papa greatgrands cake

All the family stayed at a nearby hotel with the cousins & kids being 3 rooms in a row making for lots of little cousin fun & late nights! We had breakfast together Saturday morning, all headed uptown to ImaginOn then Mom kids & I had lunch at the nearby 7th St Market.

Suzs Treats ImaginOn

Saturday afternoon, Jason & I took off to NoDa Brewery while the grandparents watched the littles.

Suz's Treats NoDa

We all met back up to get ready for dinner complete with lots of “look at my twirls” from the little girls & try my drink & hair wand from the bigger girls. Then it was dinner time. We had our own dining room but 5 kids 5.5 & under meant lots of Clubhouse shenanigans!

Suzs Treats Papa dinner

Followed by another late night at the hotel with kids running & bouncing from room to room before finally crashing at 11p! So much fun! So tired Sunday morning! We all decided to head back towards home in the rain Sunday morning. & thankfully all got home uneventfully.

Lucy & I even had time to make it to her first girl only birthday party for a classmate. Spa themed & Lucy left with make up on! This was such a wonderful weekend!

Categories
Motherhood Reading

Moxie Matters

Monday night of last week, I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours with my tribe seeing Jen Hatmaker & Nichole Nordeman (along with like a thousand others) at my church for their Moxie Matters tour.

Suz's Treats Moxie Matters

They shared their stories. Nichole slayed us with her beautiful music. Jen brought it home with her beautiful words & speaking God’s truth to us about pain, community & our tribe. We laughed, we cried & I know I left in a awesome state of mind knowing the beauty & power & Moxie of women together.

Suz's Treats tribe

I’m about 1/2 way through Jen’s Moxie Matters book after laughing through For the Love at lunchtime earlier this year. Follow her on social media. Pick up her latest books. Let her words bring laughter & God’s love in our crazy world. & I came home last week & added Nichole’s CDs & book to my amazon Christmas wish list. I know there are days when I need to hear her songs while driving or at work.

The Moxie Matters tour just announced spring dates FYI. If they’re coming near you, go!

Categories
Everything Else Motherhood

A Bad Moms Christmas

We might still be six weeks away from Christmas, but the Christmas spirit (& frenzy) is starting to take hold of me. Gift buying, decorating idea, travel plans & outfit choices have been occupying my thoughts for a couple of weeks now. It doesn’t take much to have it all be very overwhelming.

Which is why I was thrilled to have a night out with a few of my favorite fellow “bad moms” to go see the new film, A Bad Moms Christmas recently.

A Bad Moms Christmas Suz's Treats

Have you seen it yet?! I laughed til I cried.

We meet the same three moms we fell in love & saw ourselves in the original Bad Moms (played delightfully by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, & Kathryn Hahn) but this time as they’re in the middle of the holiday hustle. Adding to their holiday craziness is their three mothers. & we as the audience got to experience the mother/daughter dynamic of the ladies with their moms (played by Cheryl Hines, with Christine Baranski, and Susan Sarandon).

My friends & I looked the mall scene. & we loved Justin Hartley I’m sure you know from This Is Us, but you see a whole new side of this guy in Bad Moms Christmas. So much fun!

A Bad Moms Christmas is a great reminder that sometimes less is more. Kids are what matters most at the holidays. & that keeping your sanity as a mom is important too!

If you loved Bad Moms, feeling like you might be a slightly crazy, “bad mom” & in need of a laugh, grab some friends (or even your mom!) & go see A Bad Moms Christmas! I’m so glad I started off my holiday season doing just that!

I was invited by STXfilms to see a pre-screening of the film but their generosity didnt sway my views.

Categories
Toddler Life

Zach’s Heart

As I made the final payment to their pediatric cardiologist online this afternoon, I realized I never posted on Zach’s appointment that was months ago.

Like Lucy’s cardiology appointment, we signed in, got his stats, did an EKG, & then the cardiologist listened to his heart & she heard murmurs. The murmurs were faint & “normal” but she still did a very lengthy ultrasound of his heart.

Suz's Treats Zach heart EKG

His ultrasound revealed a perfectly healthy, normal heart! Yes, for some unknown reason, he has “normal murmurs of childhood” but his heart is in perfect condition. No holes, no issues, no restrictions & no follow up needed!

Categories
Toddler Life

A Tiny Little Bit Of a Broken Heart

It’s been a while since I shared much of a status on the kiddos. I share so much with photos & updates on FB & IG that this page gets a little dusty sometimes. But since y’all have been here with me since the very beginning figured I’d share what’s going on.

Let me preface this saying that Lucy is “fine”. We are confident in our pediatrician as well as pediatric cardiologist & trust what they’ve assured us. I KNOW, oh Lord how my heart hurts just thinking about children, my friends children, who have had literal heart break, that this could be oh so much worse. I am not trying to diminish that. But I’m still processing & this is how I process.

So a rewind. Tuesday week ago, Lucy & Zach had their 5yr old check up. We saw one of the main doctors in the practice, one we’ve seen before & that I’d always liked. Height & weight great (44″ & 48lb for L & 43″ & 43lb for Z). Hearing good. Eye sight good. Urine & bloodwork sample good. They passed their can you balance, say numbers, letters “test” fine.

Dr looked at eyes, ears, throat (check, check, check) & listened to their lungs & heart. At their hearts, he had them sit up & lay down & then later in the appointment listened again. I was kinda thinking hmmm? But also wrangling two keyed up 5y olds who’d just heard & realized they were each getting 4 shots, so I was a bit distracted.

After all was said & done, Dr told us that he heard murmurs in both their hearts, more severe in Lucy. And that he wanted us to take them to a pediatric cardiologist this summer. I was shocked. All their Dr appointments over last 5yrs & we were just hearing about this. He advise as hearts grow, things can change. He felt like it could be nothing, but that he recommended seeing a specialist.

They were a bit of a mess from four shots each & I was a bit of a mess stressing over “heart murmurs”, so we stayed home last Wednesday. I still have not googled it as I don’t want to know.

(We stayed in bed watching Netflix for way longer than usually acceptable still-in-bed time. But they were dressed though!)

Pediatric cardiologist office actually called Wed after they received the referral so I was glad I had time to take their call & make appointments. Lucy’s appointment was 6/13. (& Zach’s will be 6/26 & I’ll do an update post on his afterwards.)

So back story done. Here’s synopsis of Lucy’s appointment.

They took us back quick; did basic height/weight then showed us to our room. There Lucy put on a gown & had an EKG done of her heart. The nurse was amazing. Chatted & had Lucy happy & giggling then taught her how to be a statue for the testing.

Next the Dr & a training Dr came & listened to her heart. She told us they could hear 3 different murmurs but not to be alarmed that they’re “normal murmurs of childhood”. For that I was thinkful & honestly we didn’t ask questions. We were happy to hear “normal”. I now want to know what is normal & do all kids have these or is it like badish but still within “normal” range?!

She still wanted to do heart ultrasound so into that room we went. (That room, all the way down to the warmed up gel, brought back so many babies doctor appointment memories for both Jason & I!) Lucy was happy all through the ultrasound because they had Netflix Trolls playing on a TV above her head! (Thank goodness.)

I, on the other hand, thought to myself, this is taking way longer than it should for a “normal” heart. Jason came & sat down beside me & held my hand. I think he was thinking the same thing. Once she finished, we headed back to exam room which is where she told us that Lucy has a small hole in her heart.

A hole in her heart.

I know my face showed all the emotions I was trying to hold back. The cardiologist assured us it was very small hole. When she was born, one of the holes you’re born with just never fully closed. It was an incidental find in the ultrasound as it’s too small to make a murmur heard from stethoscope.

It’s not effecting her in any way. It’s not bad enough she wants surgery. She said it could close up on it’s own but usually if it was, it would have already done so. She wants to monitor it & see us back in 18-24 months. Lucy doesn’t have any medicine to take, no food restrictions, & no childhood activity restrictions.

She does have three things she can’t be or do due to possibility of blood clot or air bubble getting in through the hole. She can’t be an astronaut. She can’t be a fighter pilot (but she can fly in commercial airline). & she can’t deep sea scuba dive. So those are random. & probably not things she’d ever want to have as her career plans.

It’s jarring me still though to know that she does have these limitations (albeit crazy ones that the vast majority of people can’t or don’t want to do). I’m also jarred that my long hoped/prayed/dreamed/stressed over having daughter has had a heath issue pop up like this all the sudden, out of no where. Going into our preterm labor/delivery/NICU days, I had prepared my head & my heart for possible complications. At their 5yr check up after 5 yrs of (mostly) healthy kid life, I wasn’t prepared.

So this week, I’ve held them tighter, read just-one-more-book books way past bedtime, high fived & celebrated their little accomplishments realizing that things aren’t always as you thought. And that your sweet, silly, wild, crazy girl might just have a tiny little bit of a broken heart.