CAMPAGNA FAMILY: July 2008

First off, house hunting is EXHAUSTING!!! Our offer that we put on the house was outbid. It's totally OK though. I went out looking with our agent today and there are so many other homes that I love even more.
Our realtor is awesome, patient, and motivated to help us find a house. (Thanks Tiff!)

It's a lot of fun though, and we are very blessed that we're finally at a point in our lives that we are financially able to even consider the option of buying. It's actually cheaper to buy a home and pay a mortgage, then to pay for rent right now. Crazy huh!

The girls are doing great. Both are healthy and growing like weeds. Well, at least Lauren is growing, I think Ashley is stuck at 26 pounds. She is a bottomless pit lately, but she still isn't gaining any weight. The doc assured me that she is healthy and that there was no need to worry.

As for little miss Lauren, she weights 20 pounds, is 30 3/4 inches tall, and her head circumference is...Well, LARGE! 18 3/4. (she just has a big brain)

I took her to see her ENT doctor yesterday and he had all good news! She does NOT need tubes in her ears like they had originally thought. And, she should be getting her trach out in about three weeks. I can't wait, I'm so excited!!
I think we're all ready to put the trach life style behind us. She's had the trach in for almost a full year now.

Life will be interesting without it at first, No loud machines heating our bedroom at night (in the middle of summer), no more loud monitors alarming, no more trach supplies to wash everyday, or boxes of supplies taking up space in our closet, no more pinning her down so we can change her trach ties every night, or fussing with her oxygen port that always falls off while she's sleeping.
I'm VERY grateful that she had all those things this past year, as they've literally saved her life, but I think we are all ready to just enjoy Lauren without all the extra stuff.

I'm excited that one day soon I will be able to give Lauren a regular bath (with LOTS of bubbles, just for fun), take her swimming, let her play in the sand at the park, let her eat messy food without worrying if it's going to get in the trach tube, (we had a really bad experience with re fried beans a couple of weeks ago, the tube was plugged with beans, it was quite scary.)

Maybe I will even be able to leave her with a babysitter so I can go on a much needed date with my husband! That would be splendid. I miss him!

How happy am I?! I got this BOB Sport Utility Duallie double jogging stroller for $125!

It retails for $430.

I had no intentions of buying anything today. I just went into the store to "look" around, while in between appointments for Lauren. I just couldn't pass this up though.

Now I can sell my single jogger/bike trailer and make my money back that I spent today and put some extra cash back in the bank! Yay for great deals.

BTW, I bought it at a store called Once upon a child. People take their gently used items in for cash, then the stores sells it at a really awesome price to happy (poor) people like me!

The stroller seriously looks like it was never used. I can't believe that I got such a great deal.

Now I can start training for The 12Th Annual Komen San Diego Race for the Cure 5K Run. Anyone want to join me?