Buh-bye September; Hello October!

I feel like I blinked and September was gone!  As I said in my previous post, we've been keeping busy at the Burdorf household.  If you follow me on Instagram, I apologize that you've already seen these photos.  Here are just a few from our month.  

Brody, he loves his Hawkeyes.  On this day he had both his football AND basketball jersey on.  Crazy kid!

 Is it terrible I can't even remember when the UNI vs. ISU game was?!  I think it was in September.  Anyway, we found some cheap tickets and had a date nite. 

 

Aaron talked to the high school football coach about Brody and his friend, Connor, being the ball boys during the varsity games this year.  He agreed and these two are having a blast!  It rained the night I took this photo, so they were extra busy.  Brody is a sponge and can't stop talking about practices, players, specific plays, etc.   

 Jenna is once again playing fall softball and I am, once again, coaching.  We moved up to 12U from 10U.  It is quite the switch!  Technically, we could have probably played 10U again, but we weren't getting anything out it and it wasn't really challenging the girls.  We're making progress every week and hanging in there the best we can.  I'm focusing on the mini victories!

 On the weekend of our nephew, Carson's, birthday in Cherokee, we had to put Bailey down.  Jenna called her our, "Joint Custody Dog," since she was ours and then we had to give her to my dad because we had too many kids and not enough time for her.  It was the perfect solution because we still got to see her regularly.

Bailey was 13.5 years old and she went downhill pretty quickly.  She started having seizures Friday night and by Saturday afternoon it was just bad.  We called the vet and had her put down.  It's always sad to lose a member of your family and Bailey was just the best.  We will miss her.

 Blurry cousin pic.  SO. MANY.  BOYS. 

 Despite poor Bailey, we did have fun.  I love my family.

 Don't you think coffee just tastes better when you drink it with your mom?  Yes, so do I!

 We did a 4K for the kids to support dance marathon.  Blake didn't want anything to do with it, so Aaron stayed with him.  Brody and Bowen are little running rock stars and Jenna is pretty much her mother's daughter. Ha!  Running's not our thing...

 Anyway, it was a beautiful Sunday morning for it and we got free pancakes afterwards!  Good motivation for sure.

 Sunsets are my love language.  I will chase them down to take pictures of them at any time.  My family knows this.  I took this one on the way to a volleyball game.  I stopped right in the middle of the road and I didn't really care.  Just breathtaking....

 Don't you love fall?  More crockpot recipes in my life.  This was a no boil mac and cheese recipe that was a huge hit with the family.

 In addition to Jenna and Brody taking piano lessons, Jenna is in full swing with her first year of band.  She's playing the trombone and the nice thing about that is Aaron and I can help her.  I have no idea what I'd do if she played the clarinet or French horn.  She seems to like it so far!

 This weather is something I'm not taking for granted!  Absolutely beautiful.  We're still wearing shorts in September and October.  Say whaaaat?!  Bowen tried to get across all three of the monkey bar stations at the playground and came up short every time. 

 Technically, this photo happened in October.  Yesterday our elementary participated in the Live Healthy Iowa walk and I went to take photos for the paper.  Always a job perk is getting to see my kiddos! 

They crack me up.  Jenna comes up and gives me a hug.  Brody's friends usually have to point me out to him.  Bowen ignored me.  Blake smiled, but wouldn't come talk to me.  Thank you children for your love - haha. 

 Here's to October, my favorite month of the year.  All things apple and pumpkin.  More coffee and tea.  A chill in the air.  Sweatshirts.  Cozy socks.  Watching football.  Can't wait!

Dance Marathon 2016!

Iowa State's Dance Marathon was at the end of January.  Without a doubt, it is our absolute favorite day of the year!  At the beginning of the week we had to start counting down how many "sleeps" we had left until the big day.

Dance Marathon is neither a dance nor a marathon, but a celebration of LIFE!  For 12 hours, these students stand "for the kids" and raise money for the University of Iowa Children's Hospital.  This year, they raised over $362,000!  That does so much good for families just like ours. 

 This year, I thought I'd do something different for my post.  I thought I would ask everybody in the family what their two favorite things were about dM.  Here goes....

Jenna - 1. The morale dance!  Everybody learns it at the beginning of the day and it is done at the top of every hour.
2. Playing laser tag and doing the inflatables.

 Brody - 1. Playing with the college kids
              2. Power hour - this is the last hour of dancing.  There are glow sticks and tons of dancing and it is CRA.ZY.  I'm with Brody, it's awesome!

 3. Blake - 1. Hanging out with Nathan (our new family contact) and his girlfriend, Becca.
 2. The army inflatables

4. Bowen - 1. The morale dance (you can youtube this to see what I'm talking about).

 2. The game room (see above and below).

5. Aaron -  1. The hypnotist

 2. Seeing the "reveal" for the first time this year!  That was at the very end when they let everybody know how much money was raised.

I'm probably going to list more than two because I'm the blogger, so I can make my own rules. :)

 6. Jamie -  1. Power Hour

2. Seeing all the dM alumni

3. Connecting with other families (there are a few moms I've become close to and we love to catch-up).

 4. Hearing other miracle kids' stories

5. Having Steph and family with us. It means so much to us that they are now part of our family.

 

 6. And this is my favorite, hands-down....

Last year and this year we had the honor and privilege to share the last family story of the night.  It's a lot of pressure because everybody's tired and you're supposed to be super motivational.  I don't talk, Aaron talks.  The whole day I harass him with suggestions like, "You should talk about this..." Or, "Make sure you don't forget to say something about that...."  I make him nuts.  I know I do.  :)

 

Here's the thing though about Aaron.  He nails that speech.  I mean, he hits a home run out of the park.  He has the college kids laughing and crying and cheering.  I am so, so proud of him how he can convey our story to these dancers.  

One funny he told during the speech I have to share.  He was talking about me carrying the twins 37 weeks and then being induced.  He said both twins were good-sized, 7 lbs. apiece.  Aaron then proceeded to walk over and high-five me.... :) :)  

Another year over and more memories made.  More funds raised for a cause near and dear to our hears.  Thank you dancers for inspiring me.  Thank you families for sharing your stories of hope.  We feel so incredibly blessed to be part of this amazing thing called Iowa State's Dance Marathon!

Dance Marathon Day!

Today is National Dance Marathon Day!!!

 For those of you that don't know, dance marathons around the country raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.  Here in Iowa, that hospital is the University of Iowa Children's Hospital in Iowa City. 

We became affiliated with Iowa State's Dance Marathon when our family friend, Emily Morgan, came over one night and asked us if we would like to be a "miracle family" and be part of dance marathon.  We said, of course!  After she left, Aaron and I looked at each other and said, "What's dance marathon?"

 Dance marathon is neither a dance nor a marathon, but a celebration of life!  It's college students who raise money and then in Iowa State's case, spend one day in January standing for the kids.  That's right, no sitting.  There is dancing, there are games, there are stories, there is fun and there are tears.  Why do the students stand?  Look at that photo below.  For so, so many reasons. 

 

I always like to say that of all the stuff we do and have done because of Blake's kidney disease, dance marathon is the best thing that we are apart of.  

 

 These college kids.  We do events with them throughout the year.  They come to our house and play with our kids.  Some of them have even baby-sat.  A whole bunch of them came over to give Aaron and I a date night right before Blake's transplant.  It's things like that that just amaze me. 

 We have had the best family contacts.  I know, I'm bias, but we have loved all of them!

Emily

Kayla

Alexandra

Nathan

 To any of you dMers reading this:  I wish I could give you all a big hug and tell you thank you.  Thank you for making a difference.  Thank you for your big hearts.  Thank you for your passion.  Thank you for being so good to our family. You think the miracle families are inspiring?  Guess what?  We're inspired by YOU!

Iowa State Fair!

We made our annual trip to the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.  Yes, the first Saturday of the fair.  I know, it is a crazy day to go, but it was the day the Iowa State Dance Marathon picked to go too, so there we were.  We got to hang out with our new family contact, Nathan.  We had Alexandra for two years in a row (loved her!) and got to know her really well.  Now, we have Nathan and we get to learn all about him.  This is the second time we've hung out and I have to say, we haven't had a bad family contact yet and I don't think we're going to start now. ;)

I did not see Hillary Clinton.  I did not see Donald Trump, although we did see his helicopter flying around the fairgrounds.  I did not see Rick Santorum.  I did get to hear (not see, it was too crowded) Bernie Sanders speak on the soapbox.  We happened to be walking by and since I had never heard anybody do the soapbox thing and had only seen it on the news, I insisted we stay.

 

One thing is for sure, it was quite a fired up crowd.  There were literally a thousand or more people surrounding Sanders.  I just thought to myself, this is why I love Iowa.  All these candidates coming to our fair, speaking, shaking hands, sweating their backsides off and eating food on a stick, it’s so unique and kind of awesome.

We never make it to everything we want to make it to in one day because of little legs.  The twins did the best they could, but according to my fitbit, I walked approximately 11,000 steps at the fair and that’s asking a lot for a pair of four year olds.  

We always love to see the butter cow, eat a corn dog, drink some lemonade, get our Hawkeye football poster, climb in and out all the John Deere equipment, go through the little hands on the farm exhibit, see the baby animals, ride Ye Olde Mill, cast our kernel and walk through all the animal barns.

Can I also just say that I had never gone to the State Fair until I was 24 years old and pregnant with Jenna.  Crazy, right?  You NW Iowans feel me on this I'll bet, when I say we always went to the Clay County Fair and NOT the Iowa State Fair.  It was closer and it was the Clay County Fair! Anyway, I'm so glad I went, because I look forward to it every summer. 

 One thing that was new this year?  The University of Iowa Organ Transplant Center was there.  That was pretty neat.  They recently just did their 5,000th organ transplant.  As we know, they do some amazing stuff down there.  We got to see one of our kidney doctors, Dr. Brophy.  He is the man who started the pediatric nephrology department at the University of Iowa.  I am so thankful for that guy!  Blake gave him a hug and I told him it was great to see him outside those hospital walls.

I always have the same feeling when I leave the fair.  Pride.  It always makes me so proud to be from the this great state.  The impact our farmers have on the world, the impact our voters have in the presidential race that all these candidates just flock here, the yummy and inventive food and so much more.  Iowa, I’d say you’re alright, but that’s just the way I see it. 

Ye Old Mill.  Burdorf kiddo FAVE.

TOMORROW!

TOMORROW is our favorite day of the year - 

Iowa State's Dance Marathon!

I realized in looking back that I never blogged about last year's dM.  Probably because Blake was in the PICU and I took the other three.  It was hard to be there without Blake and Aaron.  Blake is the reason we are a part of dance marathon.  I remember thinking, this sucks!  Blake should be able to be there.  But, at the same time I thought, this is why these awesome college students dance for kids like Blake, at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital.

My biggest memory of dM 2014 was when they announced the families at the beginning.  At the last minute, I talked to Aaron about possibly face-timing with each other and holding up our iPad when we walked through the chaos that is the college students and the start of dM so the students could see Blake's face via the iPad.  It is a moment I will never forget.  I think if I see a movie reel of my most impactful life moments, this will be in there.

They announced us and up walked Jenna, Brody, Bowen and me holding up the iPad.  I panned the whole audience and the crowd went crazy and got so loud.  I couldn't hold back the tears.  Then, from the back I heard a, "We love you Blake!" (it ended up being from one of Aaron's former students and ballplayers!).  I was crying and as I looked around I saw so many students crying too.  It was just...one of those things.  

Here is last year's highlights.  If you have time, you may see a few familiar faces in it.  If you watch nothing else, be sure to watch the last 30 seconds. ;)

I have FOUR kiddos (and maybe me too!)  that cannot wait for tomorrow to get here!!!  

Low iron and more labs

Last time I blogged, I told you at the end that Blake's labs were ok except for his creatinine.  Well...I didn't realize that some of his labs didn't come back until the next day, which was Thursday.  On Thursday, Blake had a hematology check-up to make sure the blood clot in his leg is still ok from when he was septic.  We have an ultrasound done every three months.

I picked-up the twins from preschool and headed to Iowa City.  I got south of Cedar Rapids when I heard from Aaron that Blake's iron was extremely low.  I asked how low and he said 15.  That is one number I don't know off the top of my head what normal is.  Aaron said normal is 200!!!  Yikes.  I immediately got in touch with our nurse and asked if she could check if there was an opening for Blake to get an iron infusion since we were heading down to UIHC.  Thankfully it worked out! 

 The low iron was a total lightbulb moment.  We thought Blake had been so tired because of his cold, but it was due to his low iron.  He had been sleeping so much!  He wasn't overly thrilled about the infusion (above), but did great and is getting better about having his port accessed.

Today I thought Blake seemed to have more energy and the preschool teachers commented on that to me too.  They could see that he hasn't been himself lately.  Poor kid.  I miss his orneriness!

So, the plan is to recheck his creatinine tomorrow (Wednesday), along with his prograf level (another kidney number).  Praying that his creatinine goes back down to normal!  We will most likely do another iron infusion on Nov. 3rd when we go back down for an appointment.  Oh!  And, his blood clot was unchanged, so that's a good thing.

*******************************************

I also thought I would share a couple photos from our weekend.  We had a busy weekend!  Jenna had a basketball game, Brody had a basketball game,  Aaron had to go to Des Moines to ref and Jenna had a couple volleyball matches on Saturday.  Aaron coaches Jenna and Brody's basketball team and I helped coach the volleyball team.  Needless to say, we had to divide and conquer.  I had a glimpse into what our life will be like when we are running in 26 different directions! 

We also were invited to a fellow ISU dance marathon kiddo's 4th birthday/mini-miracle, which involved Cy.  I know, I never thought we Hawkeye fans would be chillin' with Cy, but we did.  Blake wanted nothing to do with him, but Bowen, the one kid of mine that I think could end up a Cyclone fan loved him. 

 Brody's dribbling the ball in his very first basketball game ever.  That his mom missed! (sob)

 Jenna did really well in her volleyball matches.  It was third and fourth grade, so the fact that our team was good at serving made all the difference.  I didn't get a picture of her in her basketball uniform, but she did well in that too and I was proud of her!

This picture is from today.  After preschool the twins and I walked to the library and played on the playground.  Blake was smiling and giggling, something that has been few and far between the last 7-10 days and I have missed that!  Here's to good labs tomorrow.  I will let you know how they go!