Happy Easter!

Hey everyone! Nona and Travis are in town this week! YEA!! Travis is coming up here for school in the summer. He is going to be staying with us for a while until he can get into his apartment. It has been so much fun to have them here!
Daniel has his final interview with Target on Monday. He has had to have like 4 different interviews and had to take this quiz thing and had to have even more phone interviews and now finally he is going to meet with the corporate recruiter for his final interview. It seems like a pretty intense interview and application process just for a summer internship. Oh well. I know he is going to get the job. We just have to hear it from this corporate person. Hes pretty excited to work for Target even though he was dissapointed about turning down Smuckers. They seem pretty easy to work with as far as scheduling and what not...except for Sundays. They don't budge on the Sunday issue so I guess that means he will have to work a few Sundays this summer. They did say that they would schedule his Sunday work around church though so I think that made him feel a little better.
I am keeping pretty busy lately with the NICU Parent Support Group and the March for Babies. Also, I am decorating a house in Idaho Falls for a lady who Daniel had talked to about me. I'm really excited to decorate again and since the lady has a pretty large house I am planning on working on it for a good month or so.
Before I forget, we really need donations for our March for Babies walk in June. If you would like to donate go to www.marchforbabies.org/TeamPeyton and sponsor us! Please help us out and support the March for Babies! They literally saved Peyton's life.
Another thing I am doing these days is starting an online shop and selling my craft projects. I am still getting an inventory together but I hope to have it up and running by the end of next week. There will be my handpainted cards, silhouette baby onesies, and artwork, among various other little items. Go to www.CatsCranny.etsy.com to see what I've got for sale!
We love you all and wish you a HAPPY EASTER!

Peyton's Follow up Clinic....and his four eyes

Hello all, Daniel here again. This past weekend we went back down to Provo for Peyton's follow up visit with his original occupational therapist, eye doctor, pediatrician, nutritionist, etc. This is done every six months. It was great to go back and see some of his old doctors and nurses. Also, we saw some of the other babies that were Peyton's neighbors for a little while when he was in the NICU--some doing great, others not so great. Peyton, however, is doing fantastic from what the doctors say. He's very healthy, and his lungs are much better. Something rather suprising though is that he needs glasses. We knew that he would need them at some point, but we didn't think he would need them this early. As some of you know, Peyton had ROP in both eyes, which is a cause for blindness in many preemies. ROP has five stages. Once at stage 4 and 5, blindness is pretty much inevitable. Doctors have to intervene and perform a laser corrective procedure before their eyes reach those stages. Anyway, Peyton's eyes reached stage 3, but miraculously did not progress to the other stages and avoided needing laser surgery--which would have caused him to lose his periphreal vision. Because he did reach stage 3, the doctors said he would probably be nearsighted. At the follow-up clinic, the doctor said that Peyton is nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. He also has stigmatisms in both eyes. Hence, the need for him to get glasses this week. It will be interesting to keep glasses on a 9 month old baby. I am sure they will be in his mouth much more than on his face. We think its a definite good thing for him developmentally, since it would be pretty hard to focus on things when your eyes are improperly balanced visually. He'll be a four-eyed stud like his daddy!

Internship

Just thought that I would post an update on the internship search. I had two interviews last week, one with JM Smuckers and the other with Target. I was primarily going after JM Smuckers since they have been in Fortune Magazines Best 100 companies to work for in the U.S. (being in the top 25 for eight years in a row). Plus, their internship payed pretty well and also paid for the housing...which by the way was right on the beach in Oxnard California! It was a pretty exciting opportunity. I was offered the position, but after going through everything we would need to keep Peyton's health care, occupational therapists, etc. we discovered that moving out of state would really complicate things. Although very exciting it would be, it wasn't right for our family, so I turned them down....regretfully. Right now I have one more interview with Target, which would be a local internship here in Idaho Falls. They pay very well, and I'm actually excited about staying in Rexburg for the summer. Catherine also has a lot of work cut out for her with the parent support group at the NICU in Idaho Falls and with the March of Dimes March for Babies coming up in June. I guess when you grow up and have kids, you have to give up those exciting opportunities to live on the beach for free. It's worth it all in the end, and I'm actually pretty excited about this Target opportunity.