GIGGLES

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Question

After talking with some lovely ladies--young ladies, at book club this evening, I have a few thoughts going about in my head. This is more of a question for myself, but I think it's worth asking.
Ok, here goes.
Do I realize what is important in life? This may have variant answers, depending on our stage in life. But basically, do I get what life is about. And how am I contributing to that purpose? Am I doing what's important?

Friday, April 25, 2008

The Lemon Festival

So here was one of our highlights tonight. The Upland Lemon Festival is going on and we decided to go. Hayden gave us a recap of the night.
Mom: What was your favorite part Hayden
Hayden: The motorcycles.
Mom: Oh, the motorcycles huh?
Hayden: Yes. and more. The horsie ride.(me nodding) . . .and more. the cars and the airplane ride and more. . .the dumbo ride. . . and petting the animals and then I peed on their food.
Aparently I didn't have his diaper positioned so well and he peed his pants. It leaked down his shorts, down his legs and onto the saw dust--interpreted by Hayden as pet food. Needless to say it then adhered to his shoes. That pretty much ended our night. Good times!



Landon is doing good. He is still a little sore, but laughing, talking, kicking and barfing like he used to. I know when he kicks like a banshee he's feeling better.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Celebrate Boris' life with us

Wednesday, April 23rd at 3pm, we are celebrating Boris' life with friends, family and acquaintances. Bring pictures of Boris that you might have. Share memories. We will not mourn for him out of respect for his family's observance of Passover. It will be at Boris' family's home in Claremont. Suzie and Bethany are in charge.
446 Julliard Dr.
Claremont, Ca 91711
If you can't be there and would like to write your favorite memories of Boris for the family archive, email
hauvers@hotmail.com
Please label it Boris Ivshin

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Each Life that touches ours for good

Sorry, this is going to be a long post.


Some times you just have to trust that God's plan is the best plan. Friday, April 18, 2008, Boris Ivshin was killed in a car accident. He was driving home from LA, where he was on an ambulance run. He struck the center divider on the 210 and then moments later he was hit by a drunk driver and killed outright. Boris was Suzie's(Serge's sister) best friend. They graduated from Claremont high last year together. Boris was attending Cal Poly Pomona--18 years old. Because Boris was Jewish by religion and ligeage, he needed to be burried right away(as the Jewish culture dictates) He was killed at 1:40 am and then burried at 3:00pm, before sun down and their Sabbath, and before the holliday Passover.
Because there was hardly any eulogy, due to the fact that you're not supposed to mourn before the passover or during, I feel that I need to say a few words to others about Boris.


Boris loved Hayden. From the moment we met Boris, we noticed what a helpful person he was. He was a good kid, --very responsible. All of you who know Hayden, know how he loves to run. if we were in a place where he needed to run, Boris would chase after him for hours and not complain one bit. Let's just say that it's an amazing thing that Boris' phone isn't broken beyone repair because he let Hayden play with it so much. He once told Suzy that he would like to be my boy's God father. She explained to him that we didn't have those, and then said, 'do jewish people have those?' He said no. I later told Suzy that the could be an honorary God Father--as long as he wasn't in the mafia. Ha ha! Boris attended many church activities with Suzie and supported her. I'd say he learned a little about the church, or a lot. After they graduated, Boris decided to get active in his old Jewish synagog. Hayden would always ask, "is BR'S(that's what he called him--no vowels) coming today?"
When Landon was born, Boris was so excited. Then when we found out that Landon had a congenital heart defect and would need surgery, he came out to spend the day with us on the day of the surgery. That meant so much to us. He also came out with Suzy to help entertain Hayden while we were staying in the Hilton for a month. Hayden and he had many a fun hour in the pool. Boris also spent a few days of his Christmas vacation this year helping me with the kids. He was so glad to just help around the house or play with Hayden. When we were paying our respects to the parents of Boris, his dad said, recognizing Hayden, "Boris loved them(our kids) so much" We were both crying then. I'm really glad I know the plan. It was so devastating for his parents, as they're Jewish, but not active or religious.
I guess Hayden was Boris' screen saver at home, and so even though the first time I met his parents was at the funeral, they all recognized Hayden. Thanks Boris for being a part of our family for a while. You made a difference in our lives, even though we couldn't say so at the funeral. You were a truly Christ like person and we were blessed to know you. We'll see you on the other side---maybe you could still be our honorary God Father--put in a good word for us? We love you!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24199758/#storyContinued
http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_8979072

Friday, April 18, 2008

Fwd:


Hi! Here's Serge's project up in San los obispo. Hope his team wins the compitition. This picture is sideways.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig!

Well, we made it home. Let's just say that this was Landon's shortest hospital vist--including placing his GT tube, or for eating issues. Had Surgery on Friday, home on Wednesday. We probably would have gone home on monday, except the surgeion was a little precautious after having to rush him back down to the OR.--that and his high blood pressure. I think he gets that from my mom.
I swear, when it rains, it pours. Landon is trying to get his two top teeth and in the process, he has a blister on the roof of his mouth and his top lip is fat. Poor thing. He's also got a bad rash ie boils, from all of the tape adhesive. He's resting in his plush bed. We have to keep his head elevated to the blood goes back to his lungs. Over all, he's more tired than anything. I'm glad that they won't have to wake him up every two seconds to examine him or take his temperature.
On the more positive side, he is way more pink! I can't believe it. He is also a lot warmer than I noticed before. I think it's because his heart mostly pumps red blood now. I'm just so glad to have him.
We got to visit with Marc and Trudy's family. It was wonderful! They are such a breath of fresh air. Hayden had a great time trying to boss all the girls around. They were so good with him. My favorite was him trying to slow the little red wagon down while they were running. After a while, I saw him just walking delirously. He loves his cousins.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

That's one way to sleep!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Slowly but surely

Landon is getting better. THey took out all of his lines today so he just has only one IV. His blood pressure is still high, but we're working on it. Hopefully --The Lord willing, things will continue to go well.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Crazy

Thanks for all of your faith and prayers!!! They don't have room for us in Ronald McDonald house, so last night we spent it on the floor just outside of the Cardiac ICU. Acutally, Serge let me have the dwarf sized couch and he took the floor. Yesterday was so crazy!!! We were scheduled for the first case, then there was a transplant, we went into Surgery at 11, out by 3 and off the ventalator. We went back to see Landon and he looked a little pale, but I just figured he was that way because he had just had a 4 hour surgery--2 of those just for anesthesia. Well, they said that he was having a little extra drainage from his chest drain, but they were giving him blood right as we came back. Fine, he was breathing good and we left to give them some room to recover him(we only get to see him at 10 min. intervals every hour while he's critical) So we come back and the RT says, don't go back we're going to have to re intubate. I'm thinking, what in the world. Then Dr. Razzuuk comes back and says, um, we're taking him back down to the OR room. 10 min. later, they had Landon ready to go and a room ready. Needless to say, in those short minutes, he had lost about 200cc of blood( almost eight ounces). They found that where they had banded the PA, the pressure had built up so much that the silk, used to band, had acted like a knife and he had busted a leak. I think it was because he was so ticked at them for making him cough. So they stitched his leak, closed him back up and brought him up. I was a wreck, but Serge said he just felt peace. They let him rest all night on the breathing tube and took it out this morning.
He is recovering well now and is very pink--minus the times that he's ticked off. He is still on oxygen, but just a whiff. The biggest surprise is that he decided to drink from a bottle! I guess he was just so hungry that he did what he had to do. Right now he's resting pretty comfortably--as much as you can when you just had hour chest ripped open twice in one day. The only pain medicine he's allowed to have is tylenol. He hasn't smiled yet, which is understandable. We hope that recovery contiues to move forward.
Thanks for you prayers--that's why Landon is alive.

Off the Ventilator

Landon's off the ventilator and eating again. He's still hooked up to lots of tubes and drains, but doing better.

Fwd:

Landon just after surgery

Friday, April 11, 2008

Landon doing fine. Resting now. Extubate tomorrow.

They found the leak! Closing him up now.

Had to go back to or. Bleeding too much .

Landon's out of surgery

Landon's out of surgery at around 3:45. They took him off the ventilator and he's seems to be doing well. Dr. Razzouk said that the surgery went well. Both Dr. Razzuk and Dr. Bailey worked on him. We get to go see him in a few minutes. We'll keep you posted on his progress.

Off Bypass

Landon's off bypass at 2:30 p.m. We'll be done with surgery hopefully in another hour or two.

Surgery started

A little hitch in our Giddy Up

At 4am this morning, we got a wake up call form the hospital. So the rumor of a transplant turns out to be true--and Dr. Razouk is doing it. What that means for us? We got to go back to sleep until 6 when they called us again. We are to be at the hospital at 8 and go to surgery around 11am. How can you be mad when somebody else has their chance at life show up? We'll keep you posted

Thursday, April 10, 2008

What's on Tomorrow's Menu

Landon and I just got home from the hospital, where we werer doing PATS(pre-admission testing). We are a green light for tomorrow. We had origionally been on second case, but they have changed us to first. So we arrive at 6am and are scheduled for 7:30. However, there is rumor of a heart transplant happening tonight and they may still be in the OR room. So we may get delayed a bit.
For those of you curious as to what they are going to do, here's a short synopsis. Normally, all of your blood retuns to the right side of one's heart and then the right ventricle pumps it to the lungs. In Landon's case, they will make, what Serge likes to call, "Plumbing changes." They will connect the superior vena cava(the tube that returns blood from the head, neck and upper extremities normally to the heart) directly to the pulminary-T. So 1/2 of the blood will just go directly to the lungs to get oxygen, without his heart having to pump it. (His next surgery, called the Fontan, will connect the inferior vena cave--all lower blood, to the pulminary-T)
The second thing they will do tomorrow will be to remove his BT shunt, from the first surgery. The last thing they will do is ligate the pulminay artery from the heart. Some of you may recall that both landon's pulminary artery and his aorta(the artery that pumps oxygenated blood to the body) come off of his small, right ventricle.
In a nut shell, he will eventually just operate on one side of his heart--the left, I think. So anywho, I gues he will have to go on by-pass for the surgery. I'm really nervous about that because it can cause hemmoraging in the brain. That's all We'd need! But it's what he has to go through to live. The recovery is supposed to take 2-3 days. We'll be happy if we're home within a month. It may be a little more crazy this time because the Ronald McDonald house is really full, and Serge is in school. Hayden is staying with Granny Amy for a couple of days and then Grandma Hauver is coming to town.
In the midst of this all, Chase, my nephew, is having his farewell on the 20th. He's going to Lousville, Kentucky. He's so stoked, and I'm so excited for him. What a great example he is to us.
I just love my boys. This morning I was awoken by a 2 1/2 year old yelling, "Good morning mommy! Can I get out of bed." When I yelled back in a not too friendly voice, 'Yes!' he yelled back, "you don't say, 'YYEEESSS' to me. You can just say 'yes' nicely." I had to smile at that!
Keep us in your prayers--and we'll keep you posted.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Thanks

Thanks for all of your comments. It gave me some more food for thought. It's funny, right after I posted, I read the visiting teaching message--about strengthening marriage. Elder Nelson suggested three actions: 1. Aprreciate 2. Communicate 3. Contemplate--ie, attend the temple On a little update. Landon is scheduled for the 11th--this Friday for surgery. He's second case, so he will begin surgery anywhere between 12-3pm. He's finished his antibiotics and is getting better. Hayden started with a cough last night--great! I'm praying we all stay healthy. Landon is working on holding his head up, and can do so sitting up for about five minutes now. It's definately improvement, but he's still wobbley. I'll take it! Hayden, Hayden, Hayden! "I'm a ham!" is his new favorite expression. Thanks Amanda! She was in town and Hayden had a good time with all the gals. At home, we have defined our house rules and are posting them, because what we're doing is not sufficient. I'll let you know how it works after surgery. Love you all! Here's Landon Laughing again, I couldn't resist!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Marriage question

So here's some thoughts pressing my mind. Serge came home from school today and he said that he heard something that made him sad. Serge is not an emotional guy. He was sad that so many people split up their marriage.
My question is, what is it that makes marriages work? You could argue that the spouse is never home or she doesn't keep the house clean enough. Hollywood would say their sex life wasn't good enough. However, some marriages seem to succeed with flaws and others don't seem to have any and yet they fail. How do you prevent something like this from happening?
Whether single or married, what are your thoughts...

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Take a Look

Hey all, here's what Serge'sTijuana project looks like. It's called the NCARB Prize 2008. Just click on the title for the link.