Carly's homecoming

In my last post I was hesitant to disclose the whole truth, but the actual word from the Dr's yesterday was that Carly may be able to come home today... AND SHE DID!! She was discharged early this evening and we have set up the downstairs bedroom to accomodate her. With family in town, she is trying to balance "rest" with "family time" as we are celebrating our family Christmas as I write.

My family and I would sincerely like to thank each and every one of you who prayed for her, visited her, called, sent cards/flowers, brought food, helped my parents... there was such an incredible outpouring of love and support. I am truly overwhelmed!

I guess I'd better rejoin the festivities. This holiday season I feel SO BLESSED!

Day 13 in the hospital

Well, Carly remains in the hospital recovering. Long ago there was some hope that she might be able to go home in time for Christmas... that day has obviously come and gone. This has been quite a unique Christmas for our family!

Her past few days have had their ups and downs, thankfully more ups than downs. For physical therapy she goes on long walks around the floor. She has to lug her IV pole around but other than that she is tube free! Pain is still an issue for her, but I think she is becoming more tolerant of it. Food is being reintroduced slowly, for the second time. The first attempts to start her back on food were thwarted by a paralytic ileus (intestines not being quite ready for food) Now she is finally having a bit of an appetite returning and has progressed from clear liquids to liquids, to bland soft food, to bland food.

Her CT scans and x-rays are showing that there is still fluid surrounding the healing kidney. If you are looking for specifics to pray for, please pray that the body quickly reabsorb this fluid. The urologist had scheduled surgery to drain this fluid this morning, but canceled it since she is showing improvement in her activity and appetite.

I am a little hesitant to mention this b/c whenever we have good news, a setback sometimes follows- There is talk of maybe her going home this week. This is what I am also praying for! She has been such a trooper, but she is SO tired of being in the hospital. It would be nice to have everyone home so we can be all together as a family and finally have our Christmas, even if it is a little late.

Progress

I am thankful to say that things seem to be progressing for Carly. For her though, I think it must seem like time is going by very slowly. She is working on getting out of bed and becoming mobile again, even if she is tired... now that sounds like a teenager!

In the meantime, here in San Antonio, my kiddos have come down with something. Everyone in my home has a nasty cough, perfect timing huh?

We are all trying to decide what the family will be doing on Christmas Day, especially if Carly is still hospitalized. I remember a few years ago when I had to work in the hospital on and around Christmas... it was hard! I can only assume that it must feel worse to be a PATIENT in the hospital in and around Christmas.

If you have been keeping up with my last week of blogs, you may find this one boring and uninformative. I am finding it harder to blog daily when there isn't a whole lot of specific things to mention, so I may take a break for few days. If I don't get around to writing again, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you from the Whitesides!

...sleep in heavenly peace

late on updating

I am so sorry, I know that there are several people who are keeping up with Carly by reading this blog, and to you I apologize that I am dropping the ball.

It does seems as if she is doing better- the setbacks are thought to have been reactions to one or some of the medications she was on and is no longer taking. Over the last day and a half, she has shown signs of improvement. There was a procedure scheduled for this morning that was cancelled after the Dr's agreed it wasn't necessary. Our Aunt Sharon stayed the night with her last night (that was so sweet of you Sharon!) and I heard that Carly has been getting rest! She does need to increase her activity, and she is working with physical therapy to do just that. There is talk of taking her NG tube out maybe tomorrow evening(??) and then she would begin slowly reintroducing foods starting with clear liquids. Being this close to Christmas the beloved trauma surgeon will be going out of town, but he said that Carly may be out of the hospital by the time he returns on Thursday. I am hoping this might happen, but if I have learned anything by this experience, I have learned to expect the unexpected.

Please, AGAIN, continue to pray for forward progress and for no more setbacks.

An update on us (Paul, Ashlyn, Benjamin, and myself) we are back in San Antonio trying to stay in the loop with all that's going on in Austin. This is my first update without first-hand info. Paul had to work today and has a dinner for one of his Dr's tonight that I am supposed to go to with him. I am realizing just how close to Christmas we are now... and how far behind I am! AAAHH!

setbacks

I am so appreciative of your concerns and thoughts and messages and prayers!! Carly is as well.

I may have turned into an optimist too soon. Sorry that I am so delayed in getting an update with yesterday's (Wednesday's) info. Tues night, Carly was having visual hallucinations- seeing bubbles and fuzzy yellow and pink things. She started having fever again 102.7; also early early Wed morning her medication that she receives through her epidural RAN OUT and the nurses took a VERY long time (not completely their fault) to get the new one running. Carly was in a great deal of pain from that point on. It wasn't until 3:00 in the afternoon when the anesthesiologist came that the pain became more manageable. The thought was that either she was reacting to a medication or something was going wrong internally. SO a chest xray, CT scan, blood work, all sorts of tests were ordered in addition to discontinuing some of the medicines. So far, nothing has come back as abnormal, the CT scan actually showed some improvement in her kidney (hallelujah!). The numerous IV's that she has had in her hands and arms have not lasted very long, and so the Dr's wanted to place a PICC line- a more permanent and sturdy IV line but had trouble placing that as well. Things that should be routine are proving to be difficult, and this has been most frustrating to ME. Anyway, finally late yesterday Carly went to the OR and the trauma surgeon (we are making him earn his pay!) placed a central line. Please pray that NOTHING go wrong with this! She should be able to receive all her fluids, TPN, and IV medications through this. The best part is that you can draw blood from this line so hopefully Carly won't have to be poked any more.

All of this is wearing on Carly emotionally- she is so tired of being in the hospital, and feeling "tortured". There were many tears shed yesterday as Wed proved to be a difficult day. It seems that many of her issues yesterday MAY be related to a reaction to some medication she was on- the ones in question from my knowledge are Fentanyl and Gentamycin (I think that's what I heard... now I am not so certain).

Okay, I was trying to do a short update and I feel like I keep coming up with more to write, and I am sure that I am leaving things out too. I need some comic relief... so I will leave you with this Christmas themed video from a couple of weeks ago (I think it is going to have to post in another message).

Jingle Bells

Tuesday's been a good day

After a bit of a rough night last night... having more to do with the night nurse than anything else... Carly had a better day today. As I arrived at the hospital in the late morning, the Trauma surgeon was lecturing the nursing staff about proper maintenance of the tube in her nose... Following that drama, my Mom left and I stayed. Carly got cleaned up as much as she could- you know the basic things we take for granted everyday- teeth brushing, face washing, hair fixing. Her throat was still sore from having the breathing tube down her throat during surgery, but after awhile she was talking instead of using her dry erase board. We brought stuff from home: pictures of her dog and of horses (if you know her you aren't surprised) to decorate her room and I think she perked up after that. However, at one point she was upset and vocalizing how "the 18yr old driver (of the other car) has ruined her life." I guess that is good that she can talk a little about the accident now...

She got out of bed with the assistance of 3 nurses and sat in a chair for half an hour. This evening Carly was transferred to a regular room. She has a "salem sump"- a tube in her nose that is removing her stomach contents, at least 2 IVs in her arms one of which is feeding her (TPN) since she cannot eat or drink ANYthing, she still has the epidural that seems to be doing a good job of controlling her pain, and she still has her catheter of course. I think those are all the tubes she has today. Sorry if that is TMI, but I did that more for myself to take inventory.

My family has felt the prayers you have been offering up on our account, we feel blessed and are so happy to report that Carly is making progress. We are still in the middle of this mess however and continue to solicit your prayers.

Monday's update

So today has been yet another eventful day- she continued with fever overnight and actually seemed to be doing worse this morning. The urologist consulted with the pediatric trauma surgeon chose to do a 3rd CT scan of her abdomen (and the 1st CT of her neck) which showed more free fluid (fluid that is NOT supposed to be there) than the last one did, and I believe it showed the Right kidney to be more swollen than before. The urologist decided it would be best to do laproscopic surgery to insert a stint into her damaged right kidney that would help drain the urine to the bladder and in consulting the trauma surgeon wanted to determine what fluid was free floating in her abdominal cavity and what the source was. While they were examining surrounding areas through the scope, they found the extra fluid to be blood which was coming from 2 blood vessels that supply blood to an area on the Right side of the colon. SO the trauma surgeon had to make a larger incision than he initially intended so that he could repair those vessels. Both Drs came out to speak with us separately- giving great detail, being very thorough, and being kind enough to answer our questions. It appears she will be in the hospital for several more days at best... Carly's dealing with a lot of pain and fear right now. The poor thing has so many tubes, wires, and machines hooked up to her! Please pray for healing, comfort, strength, and rest for Carly. Oh, and also please pray for my Mom who has hardly even left her side through this whole ordeal -she looks pretty pathetic herself with her arm in a sling and all her bruises. My Dad is doing well, although he is still pretty bruised up too... I think between the two of us (my Dad and myself) we might be able to talk my Mom into coming home tomorrow for a little break as long as things stay as they are or improve. Love you all- Thank you for your concern!

Another Carly update

I first want to apologize to all the people who I have spoken with on the phone and told I would call back... and never did. Today, no, ever since my last post, things have been hectic. The Dr in Brownwood announced that Carly was stable enough that he wanted to transfer her to the Austin Children's Hospital (something I was earlier told wouldn't be an option) and that she would travel via helicopter.
I could write a lot about the details, but it is very late/or very early- so to sum it all up, Carly is now in the ICU at the Dell Children's Hospital. I am sure that she needs to get rest, however I am eager to get to the hospital myself and annoy the staff and hopefully get some of my questions answered. It is a blessing for our family that everyone is back in Austin- praise God! Thank you again for your continued support.

Carly update

I was hoping to be able to report that her condition was improving enough to where she could be transferred from the ICU to a regular hospital room. However she has been running a fever all day and there is a little concern about her heart rate being a little higher than it was before- which could possibly be related to the fever, but my initial thought is "is she still bleeding somewhere?" On the seemingly positive side, she has not had any blood in her urine for almost 24 hours now.

Please keep praying, I personally don't feel like I know enough about her current condition to be giving any sort of update, things are still fairly unknown right now. I believe that my Dad and brother Ryan may be heading up there soon both to be there for Carly and to give my Mom a little break. Maybe I can give a better update later...

I have appreciated your responses- prayers, thoughts, phone calls. As I asked before, please continue to pray for healing for my sweet little sister.

Emergent prayer request

My brother Ryan graduated from ACU last night, but my parents were in a car accident on the way there. Both my parents are bruised up - my mom has a hairline fracture in her shoulder blade and my dad's thumbs are so swollen as his laptop's screen was broken over his thumbs when the airbags engaged... But my sister who was in the backseat sleeping suffered internal injuries, the most serious of which is an injury to one of her kidneys and is now in the ICU in Brownwood, TX. I haven't been to see her yet, we are headed there this morning. I am not certain of her diagnosis/condition and hope to know more once we've been to the hospital. Please keep her and my parents in your prayers...

New Tricks

Oops... I meant to include this in the previous "6 months old" post.

6 months old!!

Here are several recent pictures of my sweet baby boy who is half way to being one year old- so very hard for me to believe!

He has accomplished SO many things in this short time! I love you Benjamin!!!

Now this could be in a separate post, but I will go ahead and include the picture the kids took with Santa:

Ashlyn was so excited to go see him... that is until we got there. She did agree to sit in his lap for the picture, but she was so stiff and awkward the whole time. As you can see in the photo, she kept her shoulders squared so she could keep Santa out of view. As more pictures were taken, she kept slumping over farther and farther. We went with our friends Carie and Colten who did their photo after us. Once their turn was over, Ashlyn mustered up the courage to walk over to Santa again, to tell him that she wants a "princess bike" but kept back a safe distance.

Later she told me with great disappointment, "Mommy, I used my manners and asked Santa for a princess bike, but he didn't give me one!" I felt a little guilty that had neglected to properly explain how a visit to see Santa works. By the way, this is the very first year we've gotten a picture with Santa with a smile instead of tears.

Paul's 30th birthday

Thank you to my dear friend Carie who did all the work to put this video together for Paul's party. I know it is late, but better late than never!

Happy birthday Paul, I love you so much!

Making up for lost time with pictures

Baby's First Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we always do 3 official Thanksgiving meals: lunch with my Mom's side of the family at my Mimi's house in Austin, then dinner with the Whitesides at Paul's parents house, and then one with my Dad's side of the family on Friday which was held at my parent's house this year for the first time. We have done this driving up and down I-35 for the past few years, but we may have to figure out a way to do less next year... we'll see!

Here is a compilation of some family pics from all the Thanksgiving meals:

here are my kids with my cousin JacyBenjamin laughing with GranddaddyAshlyn, my parents dog Dusty, my sister Carly, and JacyBen with my brother RyanAshlyn and my niece "baby Hannah" Ashlyn and Paytonthe kids table at Mimi's house: my sweet teenage sister (who is too old for the kids' table but never complains about it) and my cousins Sara and Michael
In other news: Benjamin is on the verge of crawling! I thought this wouldn't happen for at least another month or so, this is much earlier than Ashlyn started. He pops himself up on all 4s and rocks back and forth until he suddenly (and violently I might add) dives forward. He uses this tactic to make it quickly across a room- it is funny to watch!
Recently my favorite thing in the whole world is Benjamin's laughter. He is such a happy baby and his favorite funny person is Ashlyn. If she falls or makes a funny noise or face he giggles so hard. It's nice to see them getting along so well.

I do still need to write about Paul's birthday and surprise party...

My hiatus

Sorry to leave you for so long wondering if the kids are still sick or not... I have been running into some concerned readers over the holidays. Everyone seems to be healthy and happy- Hallelujah! I apologize for taking such an extended break from blogging, the past weeks have passed by me so quickly, I am not sure I can even do a very accurate summary. On the 18th Paul's family and I threw him a surprise party up at the church, and he was actually surprised! I'll need to get back to you with pictures from the party when I can... in a related story my wonderful husband also turned 30.... I want to do a good blog in honor of that as well... of course there was Thanksgiving as well.
For now I am going to beg of you some patience while I get my life (and house, what a mess!) in better order and I will leave you with the promise of a couple of more substantial blogs to come. I just wanted to give you a quick post for now so that you won't think that I have quit blogging altogether!

Sick of sick

I am sick and tired of my kids being sick! Really it would mostly be Benjamin... right now he has bronchiolitis from a virus- most likely the adenovirus. Life has not been real fun around here. I am having to give him respiratory treatments by nebulizer several times a day, giving him TONS of oral medications (which he immediately throws up nearly every time!), and trying to get him to sleep as much as possible. Thankfully he is sleeping now and Ashlyn wanted to watch Veggie Tails... otherwise I couldn't be writing. Poor Ashlyn SO BORED. We can't leave the house mostly b/c by the time we get ready to go anywhere it is already time for another nebulizer treatment. Also, we don't want him to catch ANYTHING ELSE!!

Nebulizer treatments

Paul was in Nashville last Thusrsday through Sunday so we went to Austin to stay with my parents. Saturday morning I ended up taking Benjamin to the ER b/c I felt like he was getting worse instead of better (I had taken him to the Dr before we left on Thursday) and he was just breathing so fast and sounding so wheezy that it was scaring me. They gave him a racemic epi respiratory treatment and he showed immediate improvement.

In the ER (notice how fun this is for Ashlyn)

The hospital we went to was the new Dell Children's Hospital which is really nice. My dad did a wonderful job of keeping Ashlyn occupied; since it was a children's hospital there was plenty of fun things to do, just not in the patient rooms.

So we made it back to my parents house just in time for the UT game- which was looking bad for Texas until I dressed Benjamin in his burnt orange. Once he was properly dressed the Longhorns started to play better and eventually won the game! Sunday came and Benjamin still had a fever, so he and I didn't go to church. I did however dress him in his Sunday clothes so my mom could get a picture of the kids on their front porch.

Even through all this... Benjamin can smile!

One more mention of health concerns: you may notice how tiny Benjamin is. He is now 5 months old and he has not gained any weight at all this entire month! We go back to the GI Dr tomorrow. I am feeling so helpless about this, all I know to do at this point is PRAY.

Superman & a Honey Bee

Here are the kids Halloween portraits...



We started off the week with a slow start. We stayed home for a few days hoping to not get anyone else sick and trying to keep our kids from catching anything else to make them sicker. By Thursday, Ashlyn was feeling well enough to give herself a haircut. I asked her to get me a comb to brush her hair after her bath... she comes walking into the living room without a comb, but instead with a look of great pride on her face. I immediately asked "what did you do?" to which she replied proudly, "I cut my hair." I turned her around and pulled a handful of hair from the back of her head and then ran into the bathroom to find even more in the sink. (I think she must have just cut layers b/c once I brushed it out you couldn't really tell she had taken scissors to her hair.) Still, I got upset with her for this; she cried and cried and cried and said she would never cut her hair again. I hope so, but we'll see!

Friday, she and I went to the dentist for her first dentist appt. We meant to have done this much earlier in her second year, but just now got around to it. I went first do she could see what to expect. When her turn came she did so well!



What a big girl!! That evening she asked "when can we go to the dentist again?"
Here is a picture from tonight. These are the kids from our life group. It was such a challenge to get them to all look in the same direction at the same time- forget about trying to get them all to smile too!

ACU Homecoming

We left Friday afternoon for Abilene, and our weekend was non-stop from there. I did a terrible job of taking pictures this weekend and I am regretting that now. Back to Friday... We got there later than we intended but we did make it to the Carnival held on campus. Like every time we visit ACU, we had to go to the campus store. Boy, the campus center has changed- now it looks like a mall's food court. Saturday morning was Kojie breakfast (I didn't get any pictures but other people did...) which is way too early. I don't think I'll be making it to breakfast again for quite awhile! Then we went to the parade. It was so windy! There we saw tons of people friends and family and had so much fun visiting. This is a picture of the kids after we got back from the parade- notice Ashlyn's wind-blown hair.
Saturday night was the Class of 2002 Reunion Dinner at the Beehive. We had fun catching up with everyone there too.

I have to include this one of Kristin, Benjamin, and Leigh Ann. Leigh Ann held every baby there, and I overheard her telling someone that she was trying to see how many blogs she could be in. Since I have mentioned that, I should also mention that the theme of most every conversation was the "Blog." Maybe it was just me but all I said or heard was either, "I read your blog," "we don't really need to talk b/c I am all caught up with you from your blog," or "you really should start a blog!" So hopefully I will have some new blogs to read soon...

While we were leaving the dinner, Paul's parents called to tell us that Ashlyn had been throwing up! So we rushed back to care for her. That night she slept great, but she kept coughing which is what she would do before she threw up, so I hardly slept at all. Sunday I felt nauseated all day, in part due to being in the car, but I did have a fever yesterday. Benjamin was acting like he felt a little sick too on the drive home, leading us to stop way too many times on the drive home. I hate that the weekend ended with all this sickness, but even so- the weekend was a BLAST!!

Love Creek Orchard

This is what we did on Saturday... we went out to Medina to the Love Creek Orchard. We had to get a picture amidst all the pumpkins

We went with Paul's family and everyone had a good time! The weather was great- mid 80's with a breeze, and there weren't nearly as many people there compared to when we went last year. I am not a fan of big crowds. However, here is a cute crowd that I am a fan of!
This is Benjamin on the hayride, not that you can tell that's where he is. He was awake, alert, and friendly the whole time.
Ashlyn's favorite part was the pony rides. They handed out business cards after the ride and Ashlyn wanted to carry it around with her the whole time. I think she though it was proof of having ridden a horse.
By the way, I appreciate all the comments, suggestions, and concerns for me in response to my last blog. We still have no luck with bottles, but not for lack of trying! Benjamin seems to spit up a little less everyday, and he is starting to want to eat more at a time, so YEA!! I just pray that we continue to make progress.

Here is the news...

It looks like we will be moving to Austin!

I have such a mixture of emotions- I grew up there, my family is there, and we already know people there. However, after living in San Antonio for 7 years (even longer for Paul) we have made some really good friends here and have been involved in our church in many different aspects. Paul's family is here and my mother-in-law in particular has been such a huge help with the kids not to mention that there are plenty of cousins and aunts to play with. Thankfully San Antonio and Austin are about as close as two big cities can be and we will hopefully be able to visit San Antonio as much or more than we have been able to visit Austin. Again, I am excited about moving... but yesterday at Ladies Bible Class I was reminded of many reasons that I will be disappointed to move. I am not much of a crier, but I had a moment yesterday (sorry Sarah!) Besides that I am overwhelmed with all I need to do to get our house on the market, sell the house, look for and buy a new house, and move all our stuff. See even now I sound like a bipolar person, going back and forth between the pros and the cons. I am still trying to wrap my mind around it all and come to grips with the reality of this. There is no set move date, but closer to the beginning of the year we should get approval from Paul's company for the financial assistance to move.

A little mini-update on Benjamin, he seems to be doing well. I think the spitting up is a little less, maybe? We are really supposed to be pushing the cereal to add calories, and are having some trouble getting him to eat as much as the Dr.s are recommending. It just seems like a lot of food for someone so tiny. Hopefully I can write again soon that he is putting on weight, as for now it will still be something I'll worry about. Just to throw this out there- we cannot seem to get Benjamin to take a bottle, any suggestions?

And here we are in October

Well, lots of things going on here. I am on my last day of the Z-pak for a serious sinus infection, this is gross but the nurse in me is trained to look at snot on a tissue and Ashlyn has observed me doing this and now asks to see too. I am just waiting for her to ask someone else to show her their snot... you've been warned.


Benjamin's health issues have also been of concern recently. I don't know if I have ever blogged about his reflux- well it has gotten concerning enough that the pediatrician referred us to a GI doctor. He spits up constantly, I always have several burp cloths with me and I do at least one load of his laundry (spit-up soaked clothing, blankets, burp cloths, plush toys) everyday, not to mention all of our clothes that get soaked too. Much more serious than my laundry complaints is the weight gain issue. He is gaining weight but not nearly as much as he should be. All the regurgitating is preventing him from getting adequate volumes of feedings. I could write so much more about all the struggles we have had with this, but to sum it all up we are now seeing the specialist. Benjamin had to have an Upper GI series done on Friday morning. I was prepared for the worst, as in a fussy baby since he couldn't eat, a long wait in the waiting room, a difficult time getting him to swallow the barium b/c it is gross and he doesn't take a bottle very well, and anything else that could go wrong. Thankfully none of those things happened- he cried for 5 minutes that morning to tell me he was hungry and then stopped, we waited for about 3 minutes in the waiting room, and he swallowed the barium like a champ! The technicians kept praising him for how he handled himself better than the adults do. We will go over the results of the upper GI with the Dr at our follow up appt.

And I do have some other news, but I'll have to post about that later... (I am NOT pregnant so don't even go there!) For now I will leave you with a few photos from the last week.


Ashlyn spent the morning of Benjamin's tests with Grandma. She bought Ashlyn some fancy jewelry and princess accessories, we are finding it difficult to convince her that she should take them off when we go out like to a restaurant or when she goes to bed.


Oh, and a first for Benjamin... the Dr recommended that we start rice cereal now, so here is the first bite-

I can't tell if he likes it or not.

September is flying by

Am I the only one who is shocked that we are already at the END of September? I have gotten a little behind on my blogging, but not as bad as some people I know!

I have recently come to know that there are several people, mostly family but not all, who regularly read my blog that I was unaware of. I have not been writing as if you were a part of my target audience, b/c I didn't know you were audience at all. So in honor of all of you "silent" readers, I am going to include more pictures than usual.

This one is from July (see, I am way, way behind)


I mentioned before that August was a busy birthday month... well so is September. Paul's cousin Taylor, my aunt Laura, my uncles Clark and Sean, my brother Eric, and my Dad all have September birthdays. (Hope I didn't forget anyone...) So we have been doing a lot of birthday celebrating this month too.
This is from Taylor's family party. Since he got a new bike for his birthday, he wanted all the kids to ride bikes together- they were happy to comply. Payton and Ashlyn wanted to try on Taylor's new helmet, and I really liked the pictures I got of each of them. They are so close in age that they tend to always do the same things...Ashlyn thinks she is ready for a Big girl bike. How about putting the helmet on now?!Here is a picture from the party celebrating Clark's, Eric's, and my Dad's birthdays. This is from the same weekend- here are the girls in their snazzy sunglasses, looking fierce!Here are a few random pictures.
Random sibling picture-Benjamin has a clogged tear duct in his right eye, and so most mornings he wakes looking like this- but he isn't too upset about it.Paul took Ashlyn for ice cream and, of course, let her get the big cone with colorful sprinkles. She really likes ice cream! This past weekend we went to Austin to celebrate aunt Laura's birthday even though her birthday was last week. Laura lives in Maryland, so we went to visit her while she's in TX. She and Benjamin got to see each other in person for the first time. We like to watch football in our family... and in honor of the Cowboys' phenomenal win yesterday I wanted to include this photo. Yes, we will again profess to be Cowboys fans. (Thank you to those people who sent me some of these pictures.) I hope you have enjoyed the brief synopsis of our September.