This year, one of the many things I'm grateful for is Camille losing her feeding tube!  After ten years of dealing with it, this is HUGE.  Last Christmas she got the norovirus and she just could not get rid of it.  Finally, after three months of diarrhea, her doctors decided to change her medicine.  This got rid of the virus AND it improved her appetite significantly.  She gained 10 pounds in 10 weeks. I told the kidney transplant dietitian how well Camille was doing and she said that lots of kids feel better on this different medication.  Which made me wonder, Um, why didn't anyone tell me that sooner? So after she gained all this weight, we spent the whole summer without using the feeding tube.  The challenge was to drink all her fluids--9 cups a day--without it.  We had a little glitch when she felt some pressure with school starting but finally we decided it was time.  The feeding tube was essential when she got it and we couldn't have kept Camille alive without

This summer, right after I got home from Louisiana, we celebrated Mindy's birthday.  She turned 14. Here are some great things about Mindy: 1.  She loves to share her life with anyone who will listen.  Some people are open books; some people aren't.  Mindy is definitely in the open book category. 2.  She loves to read.  Her favorite activity is to go to the library and load up on lots of books.  Then she comes home and tries to read them non-stop.  She especially loves fantasy with dragons and princesses and superheroes.  She LOVES Harry Potter and has read the whole series 7 times.  Whenever she has run out of new books, she starts reading the Harry Potter series again. 3.  She isn't a dessert hog.  Mindy is actually not a dessert fan.  One year for her birthday she wanted watermelon instead of cake.  This year she requested trifle.  There are a few sweet treats she likes but her favorite snack is a bag of Doritos which her brother Jan gave her this

Our Halloween was low-key this year.  We did our usual carving pumpkins on Monday night. On Halloween I went to the school parade in the morning.  Then in the evening we did trick or treating after a quick dinner. This little Minion was put up by some friends of Camille to compensate for the rest of their yard which was filled with scary stuff. Susanna had a party with friends which involved making homemade root beer (because she is now legal to buy her own dry ice), making homemade donuts, and watching "Coco".   Meanwhile Talmage went with a few friends to a haunted house. Here is my son's family in Louisiana with some super cute costumes and grandchildren: Here are some pictures of my son in college going to a "goth" party with friends: Scary, huh?  Fortunately this is nothing like his look in real life. Love the flyswatter decor.