Progress, progres, progress!!! Jax is doing so great! I just can't believe how he has taken off since his surgery in july. The goal of walking by christmas is very close to happening and I just can't explain how happy that makes my heart. I had a speech eval done on him in oct and turns out he doesn't have a speech delay at all. We see a speech therapist twice a month to help with some feeding issues he is still having but even that is not as delayed as I thought it would be. We haven't seen dr Grady since sept, we will see him in jan for a checkup and i expect wonderful news. Our little angel is just full of energy and so happy! The girls are doing well also. Whitney had a little bit of 1st grade anxiety for a few weeks but we have worked through that finally and she loves going to school again. Miss Tori is as social as ever with chorus, student council and trying to keep her grades up she is a very busy girl. Layoff rumors are floating around my corporation again, we got an email explaining the state budget crisis stating that if things don't improve by jan 1 they are going to start making us take 2 furlough days/pay period, which means two days off without pay. I guess I should be thankful that we are not being laid off yet but I fear that they are just postponing the inevitable, the state of IL is just a mess financially and I'm scared that our little program is not going to surrvive much longer. So, Im checking the classifieds daily and keeping my options pretty open. Hopefully something will fall into my lap soon. Jason has had to start taking loads out of the area, which means he's been spending 1 or 2 nights a week away from us. It sucks terribly but the bills have to be paid. Thats the update from this camp...happy holidays to all who are keeping up with us!

OK, so I am back to work and obviously have no time for blogging. I come home and immedietley start dinner and baths and homework and by the time all that is over im so exhausted that I can't even think straight. I love it and wouldn't trade it for the anything. So...as for updates.... Jax is doing great. We saw dr Grady beginning of sept and he was very pleased with his weight gain, development and cardiac numbers so he doesn't want to see him again until Dec. 3 whole months without a heart visit. Thats a huge step! The following week we saw dr Pav for his 15 month checkup and he was also very pleased with weight gain and development and said he will need his flu shots in oct and then won't come back until Dec for 18 month checkup! *knocking on wood* we all just have to avoid the swine flu and life will be pretty darn close to perfect! The girls are back into their routines after a not long enough summer. Tori is alot more active in extracurricular activites this year so she has been pretty busy. I was very excited when she decided to start bowling in her youth league on saturdays again. She is an awesome bowler but got a little burnt out so she took last season off. She bowled a 144 her first week so she obviously didn't lose any of her talent. Miss Whitney has been worrying me a little bit lately. She has been really emotional and weapy for the past couple weeks. I first thought she just wasn't getting enough sleep so I moved her bedtime up an hour but it hasn't relly helped. At parent teacher conferences I learned that her teacher has also noticed her being a little emotional but assured me that it is normal and she may just need a couple weeks to adjust to the stress of 1st grade. So, I'll be watching her closely for the next couple weeks and am trying hard to spend some "mommy/whitney" time with her. Work is crazy as ever and there are a couple of cases that really break my heart. Those are the ones I can't leave at the office when i come home at night. Jason and I were able to escape for an evening to st louis to see nickelback a couple weeks ago. It was a really good time and some much needed couple time. Our next get away will be in december to see Daughtry in Louisville KY. That will be a weekend getawy and will probably involve some last minute christmas shopping too. Thats pretty much it for our boring lives... just trying to keep it all together!

Good weekend all! What a busy week this was. I actually thought that I would get bored being unemployed. Somehow I still can't find enough hours in the day to get things done. I really enjoyed spending time with the kids this week. Tori has had color guard practice all week and on wednesday we had to register her for oh my goodness the 7th grade! Sometimes I just look at her and wonder where the time went. Whitney found out who her 1st grade teacher will be this year and was so pleased to get Ms Brock. She really loves school and is looking forward to maybe getting to ride the bus home from school this year. I haven't given in to that idea yet, I just hear all these horror stories about bus crashes and kids being left behind or on the bus and I feel much safer picking up my kids. Anyway, she really wants to ride a bus with her friends so I told her that maybe I could take her to school and she could ride the bus home. My hope is that she will ride it a couple times and hate it. Back to school shopping was last weekend the carbondale economy will be safe for a couple more months thanks to us..lol We got back on schedule with Jaxon's physical therapy this week as well. He still hates it and cries the whole time. I feel like such a terrible mommy making him do it, he just looks at me with those big brown eyes and reaches for me to save him, it just breaks my heart. But if he had it his way I think he would let me carry him around for 18 years. The physical therapist took it easy on him this week but warned him that he will not get off so easy next week. We took a break from craziness on thursday and went to grandmas house to lounge by the pool. My mom watched jaxon while the girls and I spent way too much time in the sun. We have one more week before the girls go back to school and then jaxon has his mommy all to himself. I sense he will be spoiled rotten soon! He rode to the bank with his daddy this morning and they should be home soon so I will sign off for now. Take care all!

Good morning! Life in the Martin/Manary house is very good. Jax got to come home yesterday afternoon and is very happy to be here. The girls and cooper are coming home as I type this so life will be back to normal very soon. It just still amazes me how strong jaxon has been through all of this. The night of the surgery was the most painful time for him. The dr.s say that this surgery causes very bad headaches and that is why he was so uncomfortable. Once we got his pain under control early saturday morning he got some good sleep and woke up smiling and ready to eat. We were out of icu on saturday just 24 hrs after heart surgery. It was smooth sailing from there until Tuesday afternoon when we all just started to get a little stir crazy. As far as the surgeon was concerned we could have came home on tuesday but the cardiology team wanted to run some tests and have us meet with some specialists to explore why prince jaxon has not grown as big as they want him to. So we spent most of the day tuesday waiting for the specialists to arrive and the tests to be done. The specialists didn't arrive until after 4 on tuesday and the tests weren't done until wednesday morning but they didn't make us stick around to get results before sending us home. His was finally discharged at 1:00 wednesday afternoon. So, here we are doing laundry, and getting the house put back in order just enjoying life. Well, the girls just arrived so I will be done for now. Thanks for all the prayers!
Tammy

out of icu!

once again jaxon is showing everyone who is boss. 24hrs after surgery he is out of icu and full of smiles. friday night was pretty rough. he had a pretty bad headache, which is pretty common for kiddos after this surgery, but once we got the right combo of pain med and he was able to rest he has done super. he got out of icu on saturday and just continues to amaze us with his strength. we hope to be home soon. take care and continue to pray.

out of surgery and all went well. They are taking out his breathing tube and getting him settled in icu. We should be able to see him about an hour (around noon).

surgery has began

They came and took jaxon around 7:30 this morning for surgery. It should take around 4 hrs is what they tell me. I have my moms laptop today but Im not sure how long she will be able to leave it with me. I will update as much as I can, keep praying!