Jenna's Post

Chad always tells me to post more often and I never really take the time to do it. After going to Jared's wedding, my friend Whitney was telling me how she checks the site every day. I guess I don't think people care that much. Whit- it is good to know you care!!

Jared and Shauntel all are "hitched up" now. They looked beautiful and after their honeymoon, I think they are finally feeling rested. Our new house is beautiful, but right now seems somewhat like a money pit. Gosh, getting a new house nickel and dimes you to death. We had roofers out last week working on some leaks. It cost more that originally planned because they found an additional leak. Since we've heard the previous occupants left in the middle of the night with no notice, there was no home improvement done before listing and the house was empty for almost a year. But in some time we know we will put our Sullivan style stamp on it and it will be our dream home. Our dogs love the big back yard and are sleeping better because they have room to run and we actually play with them. Noah suffered his first real "boo boo". He fell running outside and won't drop that dang sippy cup so he skinned both elbows. He kept whining and showing me his elbow. Boy, that ruined the rest of his evening and since then, he won't sit down in the tub. I guess he thinks his elbows will always burn in the hot bath water. He is so funny!!

Last surgery completed!!!!!!!!!! I am so ready to be done and past all this. The emotion that has arisen lately is overtaking me. I am trying really hard to stay focused on all the wonderful things in my life, but it is hard to fight the pity party I want to keep throwing for myself. Anywho...I hope to take a real bath/shower soon and get these, oh so interesting daisy things sewn on to my breasts, off!! The 8 inch incision on my belly is starting to heal and I am moving around much better. I only hope the lifting restriction will be "lifted" soon.

I always appreciate everyone's prayers and concern. The Sullivan family is on the road to recovery and I am greatly looking forward to my summer vacation from work and lots of fun time with Noah. Hopefully, we will all be healthy this summer.

Everyone join Race for the Cure!! The deadline to sign up is March 31. Click here donate, run, or sleep in for the cure.

Much love to all!! Jenna

Jenna's back in surgery

They've taken her back and came out to tell us she's doing well. There was a slight scare the anesthesiologist wouldn't clear her because of her cough but he thought her lungs were clear enough. She was more nervous than she has been the past 2 surgeries but she went back without any emotions. She was pretty emotional last night. It just seems like we can't turn the page on this chapter. I promised her the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't a train coming head on.

The surgery should be 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending. Other than being sore and on lifting restrictions the hardest part of this surgery will be the gauze padding. It will actually be sewn into her skin for 10 days so she'll have a hard time dressing since the padding is quite large and can be seen through clothes. They told her to just wear pullover hoodies or zip up light jackets and it shouldn't be too inconvenient.

I'll let you know when we're home.

People watching

I think I've found the holy grail of people watching spots. This surgery center has dozens if not a few hundred doctors that use it. When you are taken to the consult room to speak to the Dr. they have a huge Rolodex type thing with laminated sheets with each doctors name. They flip it to doctor you are going to speak with and let you wait for him/her. The thing is at least a foot and half thick so there are a lot of Dr.'s here.

Therefore you have all types of people coming in for surgery. While they are getting Jenna's IV going I'm sitting at the front and I can hear the people check in and then what there tab is. I've started to wonder what they are having done. A couple of people are obviously sick but most look like its any normal day. The last person was a pretty hot blond that looked happy to be here and her tab was $900. I'm guessing some sort of plastic surgery. Remember these are the non-Dr. fees. At least its like that for us. Dr. Atwood is paid separately. Our tab today was zero. Neither one of us thinks that's right but whose gonna argue.

There was an elderly man while I typed that came in with a slight limp. I think he's having urinary tract problems. That's what I've given him anyways.

The blond just went back and her husband/boyfriend went with her so she's not getting an IV so its definitely Botox or something. Although I think they do that in the office now, but that's what I think she's having so that's what we'll go with.

I may start doing this on my days off, its kind of fun.

I'll let you know when hemorrhoid removed lady comes out.

Under the knife...again

Jenna has her last (all together now...HOORAY!) surgery tomorrow morning. It will be an hour and a half starting at 8AM so I will keep you up to date per usual here. This surgery is mainly a skin graft for the last stage of reconstruction. She'll be on the usual restrictions for 2 weeks (no lifting over 5 lbs.) but this time I think she may actually follow the directions since screwing it up now would mean another surgery and she definitely has her 'light at the end of the tunnel' goggles on.

Noah is back in ElDorado with Magga. Papaw and Mamaw will be bringing him up on Wednesday and Granda and Pops came up tonight to help take care of Jenna and help around the new house since we're on Spring Break.

We'll chitchat tomorrow. Night night.

New digs for the Sullivan's

I haven't posted in awhile because our life has been wrapped up in the purchase of our new house! I didn't mention anything about it here because my baseball background has left me a superstitious ninny. I didn't want to jinx the house closing by mentioning it here.

That's all over now and we are moved (mostly) into the new digs. The house is in NW Springdale about 3 minutes off of 540 in a great neighborhood on a cul de sac. Actually there is a cul de sac at both ends of our street so visions of Noah riding his bike back and forth safely was very appealing. It took some time for Jenna and I to get used to the idea of not living in Fayetteville. I've been there for almost 12 years after all.

Noah loves the new house. He runs around like a crazed monkey. He loves the stairs and the huge backyard. The dogs love the backyard as well. During the day they have their own side yard and then we let them into the big yard when we're home.

I'll post some pics of the house in the days to come, but for now I just thought I'd let you know why we've been so busy and distracted lately.

Jenna's Race for the Cure team invitation

Hey everyone! Finally, I can say I am almost as good as new and cancer free! Now, I have the opportunity to give back. Without the awesome advances in medical science and the message of early detection, my cancer would have gone undetected and more importantly, untreated.

Did you know that one in seven women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime? Even at 31, I did not have to look far to seek guidance from other young women who fought the battle ahead of me.

On April 19, 2008, I will be participating in the Komen Ozark Race for the Cure®. I would be honored to have any of you or your friends join my team, which we have officially named, The Breast Brigade.

Join the fight by registering as part of our team or by supporting our efforts with a pledge contribution. The money raised through the Race will fund vital education, screening and treatment programs for underserved women in our own community and support the national search for a cure.

You can view our website at the link below and join our team there. When you sign up, you should also notice the youngest model/advocate for breast cancer awareness and the Komen Ozark Foundation. That is my Noah!

Chad and I have set a goal of $2,500 for our team. Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,
Jenna Sullivan

Click here to visit my personal page.

Click here to view the team page for The Breast Brigade

Join the Breast Brigade

"The Breast Brigade" is our new team freshly formed in the Ozark Komen Race on April 19th. You can go to here and put in "The Breast Brigade" under Join an Existing Team. It should be listed and make sure Jenna is listed as the team captain.

We are envisioning pink camo as our T-shirts. Go ahead and sign up for Jenna's team if you want in on the coolest team out there. I registered thebreastbrigade.com also and I'll let you know when we get stuff up on it.

Much love,
Papa Goat

A boy's weekend

Jenna went with Valerie to see our friends the DiCarlo's in Saint Louis. They left yesterday so Noah and I found ourselves alone. So last night to stave off the difficult task of handling Noah alone, I decided on some extra curricular activities. We went to the movies. I announced this plan earlier in the week to much jeering and laughter. Everyone thought I'd be wasting my money to take Noah into the theater and then leave a couple minutes in when he wouldn't sit down. I thought my theory was sound though. If I 1) had his pacifier 2) had snacks 3) wrapped him up in a blanket 4) sat up front and 5) went alone so no one was there to distract him- he would sit still in my lap for 2 hours of the Veggie Tales movie. I forgot to mention that he loves Veggie Tales.

I'm happy to report today that he was perfect. He loved the movie. He laughed a lot, pointed at and talked to the bad guy when he was on screen, and clapped after each song. When the other kids would laugh he would fake laugh which made me laugh which made him laugh for real. He had a little popcorn and drank his juice and sat in my lap for 1 hr. and 50 minutes. It was a lot of fun.

Meet the Sullivan's

Well our 5 minutes has come and gone. The cameraman, John, was here for about an hour before Neile showed up. He just filmed us. He filmed me feeding Noah, Jenna playing in the floor with him, and then all of us playing in Noah's room. It was like almost any night in the Sullivan household except we fed Noah broccoli and cauliflower and we were way over dressed for 6:30 at the Sullivan house.
We were interviewed separately, which threw off our usual conversational rhythm of me interrupting Jenna and her correcting me. I chased Noah and played with him in his room for most of Jenna's interview so I really have no idea what all she said. When it was my turn I felt like we were on the Newlywed game and Jenna had already given the answers and if I gave the same answers we'd get $5000 and a nice set of parting gifts.
I guess the interview went fine. I was surprised at how close to the surface the emotion of everything still is. When I started talking it was fine, but sometimes she'd ask these vague open ended questions like "What do you think the most important thing for husbands to know if this happens to their wife tomorrow?" That may not be a perfect quote but it was close. I was surprised that a lump was in my throat at some of the questions. I guess we still have more healing to go.
After the camera stopped rolling we had a nice conversation about a lot of stuff. She talked about Project 11 and we talked about the financial impact this has had on our lives. She thought Jenna looks like Reece Witherspoon (stop me if you've heard that before) and I told her I thought I looked like George Clooney. I think that hurt my creditability with her so she may pull my interview. We'll just have to see.
She said 2-30 minute specials will air sometime in the future and there will probably be footage of us in both of them. She'll let us know when that will be and I'll pass the information on to you guys so you can tune in or watch on their website.

Interview tonight

Up here in NW Arkansas, one of our local news anchors, Neile Jones, is super involved in the Race for the Cure and the Susan G. Komen-Ozark affiliate. She's done a lot of great things the past several years in NWA. Her newest project is called Project 11. Anyways she contacted Jenna a long time ago about talking to her on camera but nothing came of it. Well something has come of it now. The camera crew arrives at the house at 6:45 tonight. She is going to interview us as part of a series on women of all ages and backgrounds who have gone through breast cancer. I know they are really there to talk to Jenna but for some reason they want me there also. I've been practicing my adoring looks in the mirror so hopefully on camera my love and admiration for Jenna will show through. I'm pretty sure my main job will be to keep Noah from wanting to hold the camera. I think on another day they want to go with Jenna to work and follow her around for a little bit. This is gonna be crazy but I'll tell you how it goes and when it will be on.

Ring around the Noah

It's so much fun when Noah learns a new game. Hide and seek is still a favorite but Jenna said that at Ms. Susan's Noah's been playing 'Ring around the rosies' and she had a mission tonight to play that with her son. After many failed attempts where Jenna was the only one 'falling down,' Daddy got into the action and it finally caught on. The three of us held hands and turned in a circle while we sang. Momma and Daddy fell down and then the funny part came. Noah didn't think just falling to his bottom was dramatic enough of a fall so he'd raise up on his tip-toes and then kind of jump up and then fall to his bottom. Then we'd all clap, he'd be the first one up and he'd grab our hands and then start singing something that resembled nothing like 'Ring around the rosies' but we knew what he wanted. After the 5th time we were all laughing so hard we couldn't get up. Then when we didn't get up quick enough Callie caught his eye and it was chase the 'Doggggie' time.

Sleeping beaux

We were in Texarkana this past weekend for a shower for Jared and Shauntel. The party was a good time and the overall weekend was a lot of fun. We didn't get to leave until 5:30 on Friday so we assumed Noah would sleep the entire way down there. We were wrong. He stayed awake for 4 1/2 hours in the dark in a quiet car. He was really good too. He didn't cry or fuss. He just sat there talking, holding onto Froggie, and watching cartoons for the most part. He fell asleep late that night (it had to be close to midnight) and popped up the next morning ready to go. While we were at the party that night, Noah stayed with Cara's parents along with Caroline. In case any of you don't know-Jenna's best friend from high school (Cara) has a daughter 1 week younger than Noah. So at 10 we start to think about heading to rescue Caroline's grandparents. We called ahead and Caroline had been out for a few hours. Not our little Noah though. It seems he had a little Energizer bunny in him. It was after midnight back at the Johnson house that he fell asleep.

Contrast this with yesterday when we left and Noah slept from Texarkana all the way to Fort Smith in the car. Then he fell asleep at 8:30 in his crib and didn't wake up until 7:15 this morning when I couldn't wait any longer and had to shake him awake. He was in a great mood the whole weekend but it's funny how when he's 'on the road' he just won't let the bed bugs bite.

Fame, Museums, and Sexy?!?!?!?!?!

Today we went to have Noah's pictures made with Amber Lanning, the girl who made him famous with the "When I grow up..." T-shirt picture. She told us that the PR person for "Kids for the Cure" had contacted her and wanted to use Noah's picture for the national kids for the cure campaign. The are going to edit out the Komen part on his t-shirt and put in Kids for the cure. Cool!
We took pictures at her new studio by the Shiloh Museum in Springdale. There were all these neat, old building and farm equipment that make for a great photo if you have a cooperative participant. We didn't, of course!! Amber did pose me in front of a building while Chad chased Noah. She told me to be sexy...what?? Anyway, we will see how they turn out.