Baby It's Cold Inside

As many of you know, Russell and I have faced an onslaught of problems with our new, old house, including natural gas leaks.  Prior to last Wednesday night, we had had three leaks.  On Wednesday night, I walked in and smelled a particularly strong gas odor in the den.  I called the gas company, and...lo and behold....gas leak number four and (drumroll, please) a high carbon monoxide leak.  The gas man turned off the gas to the furnace, and there we were.  And there we left.  We stayed at my parents' house Wednesday night and Thursday night, at the Traywicks' house Friday night, at the Knights' house Saturday night, and back at my parents' on Sunday night.  Gypsies, I tell you.  Gypsies.  Except that we DID have a home to which we returned to unpack and repack.  From Wednesday to Monday, we packed AND unpacked 3 people 5 times.  I do not suggest that you try this.  Especially with a small child.

Big fat THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my parents, the Traywicks, and the Knights because this is how cold it was in our house over the weekend:

With the heat turned off completely, it got below 50 during the daytime, and who knows how cold at night.  We have a home warranty, so it took a couple days for all that to be worked out, and then we couldn't get our new system until Monday.  We didn't pay extra for the new thermostat, but it's the first one that the company has ever installed like this.  Right now, the screensaver scrolls through nature and American city scenes, but you can put your memory card in the side and have it scroll your family pictures.  Seriously?  I was actually able to catch a shot mid-scroll, and the picture on the bottom shows the home screen.

Being warm and back in her own house must have inspired Emma to make a new L sound that she pretty much said all evening Monday night, Tuesday morning, and Tuesday evening.  It's like she's trying to say lizard as fast as she can and imitate a lizard with her tongue at the same time.  On Tuesday, she entertained various Stein Mart shoppers with this noise.  They would look at her and say, "Ohhhh, look how cute!  Hey darlin'!  How are you?!"  And she would answer like this, only l0 times longer and twice as loud:

Taking a look back at last year, Emma has progressed immensely.  What a different Christmas we are having this year as opposed to last!  Honoring the birth of Christ and the blessing of having Him here on Earth is a little different for me this year.  I don't really know how to explain it.  Last year, I remember thinking that when God blessed us with the birth of His Son, it had to be bittersweet - God knew what horrors His Son would eventually suffer.  Our family also had a much more bleak outlook for our beloved child this time last year.  Her prognosis wasn't all that great, and there was so much uncertainty surrounding her medical needs.  Emma still has a long way to go, but she has also come so far...much farther than any doctor or nurse expected of her.

Emma has another MRI next Wednesday to compare to the MRI from June.  We won't know until January what the results show.  Best case scenario, Emma's Chiari malformation has lessened in severity on its own, and the large spinal-fluid-filled syrinx (cyst) along her spinal cord has drained itself.  This is all very unlikely, but please pray for that outcome.  Isn't it funny how we suddenly pray for results of medical tests to tell us positive news, when a condition or problem has actually been a certain way long before we started praying for results to tell us about it?  Anyway, back on track....worst case scenario is that Emma's Chiari malformation has caused her brain stem to drop lower than her fourth vertebrae in her neck (where it was in June), and the syrinx has gotten significantly larger in length and width.  They would pretty much schedule an immediate decompression surgery at that point.  Literally, brain surgery.  (Side note: you know how people say, "You don't have to be a brain surgeon to know that blah blah blah blah"?  I'm dying to ask Dr. Troup how he responds if/when people say that to him.  He's kind of a goofball and witty, so I'm sure he has a smart reply.)  Again, back on track.....Emma's decompression will have to happen sometime.  There's no escaping this reality.  Apparently, the older she gets, the better she will be able to recover from the surgery.  Which is a good thing, considering she will probably have to have more than one decompression.  So do we just wish for it to happen in the next few months and get it over with or keep wanting to postpone the inevitable?

So let's take a look back at this time last year:

December 8, 2010

December 8, 2010

December 12, 2010

December 13, 2010