.................................Hot Stove Dinner

Tonite was the Annual Hot Stove Dinner for the Auburn Doubledays at The Spring Side Inn here in Auburn. This was a long awaited outing for Zachary. All he wanted to do was scope out the silent auction items and scope them out was what he did. He only saw a few things he would like but 1 thing he really wanted. All night he kept going out to the table to see if anyone outbid him on a red coached helmet worn for the 2008 season by Dennis Holmberg. Well Zachary was the only one that bid on it and he was beside himself when he won it.

All night we kept telling him it was a silent auction so he couldn't talk until it was over with. (Those of you that know Zachary thats a tough task. LOL)

Zachary got to see some of his baseball park friends (Mike, Jeff, The Grays, Glenn Gaston, Carl, Dennis Holmberg and he got to meet David Purcey) David Purcey is a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays so that was just another autographed piece of memorbilia to add to his collection.

Zachary & David Purcey

Zachary & his buddy Dennis Holmberg

Zachary getting his autographed ball from David Purcery

Anyway, the evening was very nice with dinner, the auction and catching up with friends. Then it came time for the speaches, question and answer session, and the raffles. Well Manager Dennis Holmberg won the 50/50 raffle and turned around and donated it to Zachary. I was so touched by that generous offer and Zachary didn't know what to think until he got home and counted how much it was. Dennis if you read this, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!! This meant alot to us and words can't say how thankful we are. You really have helped Zachary out and helped him with thinking of different parts of the game besides just playing on the ball field.

Thanks to everyone for a great night. Please watch for updates on the next week during Zachary's hospitalization.

................................Added Stress

We are less than 2 weeks away from Zachary's surgery and the stress level in the Saurini household is through the roof.

I got a phone call on Wednesday from another dr. at Boston and she was asking me questions about the experimental drug therapy they where going to use on Zachary and I was like "Wait a minute. You are the dr's not me, you should have that all documented as to what took place at our appointment." Well come to find out the Dr we saw is no longer at the Hospital and they don't have any info on our appointment. I hit the roof. I was like listen you should have a dictation from that dr where is it? Why isn't she there any more? Why did she take on new patients if she was leaving? (we all know most dr. dont up and quit they plan it to not leave them short) Well to make a long story short they where basically going to go off of what I said. I told them no, we want to see another dr and my son will not be put on anything until then.

Well the dr I was speaking to was like we have time before his surgery anyway so no problem. I was like "Hello his surgery is exactly 2 weeks from today. We don't have time." Well that turned into a whole nother long story. She was trying to tell me they didn't have him scheduled for surgery. I was like oh yes you do, I haven't gotten the letter yet from the surgical coordinator, but I have spoken to Nilda a few times its at 830 on 2/4/09. She tried telling me thats just a office visit. Well I hit the roof again and started calling Nilda. Well I finally get ahold of her (I was not settling for voicemail. LOL) and she was like you are scheduled honey. And he has pre-op apt on Tuesday at 7am and 830 am. My BP was finally able to go back to normal knowing that. I was so worried because so much went into trying to get this all scheduled and everything worked around it.

So with all that in mind, we are now counting down the days to hopefully PAIN FREE days for Zachary. Zachary has been asking quite a bit of questions regarding his surgery lately and I am happy over that. I just keep talking to him in hopes it eases some of his anxiety. I can just imagine what he is thinking in his little mind. I know what I am thinking and I am able to get answers to understand where its harder for a child.

Since Zachary has his appointments so early the day before surgery, we have decided we are going to try to take him to the Childrens Museum to enjoy his last day of freedom for awhile. We looked it up on the computer and it looks really awesome. If anyone knows anything about it please let me know.

As for now thats all. I am off to school this weekend and then hitting the road running next week with everything from packing, organizing, getting everything finalized, hair appointments, getting my workouts in at the gym (I'm sure it will be awhile before i get back there again), and we are having our first meeting on the benefit they are having for Zachary. If anyone wants to help please let us know.

And thanks for everything everyone has said and done. And please keep Zachary in your thoughts and prayers.

................................Basketball Girl

Yep, you read that right. Our little princess Marissa tried out for the basketball team at school and made it out of 38 girls. 38 girls tried out and only 16 made the team. We are very proud of her and look forward to seeing her grow with her basketball skills. When Marissa came home to tell us she wanted to try out we looked at each other and chuckled inside because Marissa has never played basketball. The last we knew she could barely throw the basketball. Anyway, we are very proud of her and look forward to going to her games.

I think our little ballerina is going to no longer be. This is her 2nd school sport this year and is waiting patiently for softball to start also. And what amazes me the most is she is doing dance, (just finished a play last month), basketball, (played soccer during that season) and still carries a 92-94 overall school average. She is like her momma....she can multi-task. LOL

Eye Update

For those of you that remember, Zachary had eye surgery in November. Well we went to the Dr. on Tuesday for another check up and the dr said he just had the best site test ever in is his Left eye. We where so happy and Zachary himself was happy and all smiles. So after all the dreading and deciding whether to do it or not, it was for the BEST. Now Zachary has to just keep doing the eye drops 3x day still swelling in there and hope for even a better improvement next month. He may not have to wear the patch again if it keeps getting better which is a goal for Zachary. I don't blame him because I wouldn't want 1 of my eyes covered all the time. I even made him some pretty cool eye patches to go over his glasses. He had baseball, John Deere Tractors, in all different colors to match his outfit for the day. Yes I am crazy but it helped with him wearing it so I was trying anything.

Now I am off to alter some underwear for him for when he is in his body cast next month. I just might get real handy with a sewing machine real quick. (Please I hope not, I can't stand to sit and be patient that long)

...................................Great Start to 2009

Thank God...Yes there really is one in my eyes. I have been praying for almost a month now in hopes we could get a room at the Devin Nicole House for when Zachary has his leg surgery in Boston. Well they don't book until atleast 1 month prior so today was the day to call and hope I got through to get on the list. Well I was suppose to call at 830, and of course me with my mind of mush forgot and called at 940. I didn't have a good feeling while dialing the number but got through on the first try and .....................................................We got a room for 2 weeks.

What that means is Rob will not have to sleep on a couch in the lounge of the Hospital, or our other option was to pay for a hotel each night at over 100 a night. The first couple nights we will be at the house as a family, and then Rob will stay there because I am staying with Zachary at the hospital.

The Devin Nicole House looks like a amazing historic house that rents out the rooms to families in need for a very low price of $25.00 a night. They have everything from washer/dryers, food, full kitchen, internet and the similar comfort of being at home.

So thanks again for anyone that kept us in their thoughts and prayers for this part of our journey. This is a major hurdle financially for us and we are very greatful for this opportunity. I am attaching a link to the place and you can see for yourself what it looks like.

Once you click on the link on the right hand side you will see a building with a door click on that for a tour of the house.

http://www.childrenshospital.org/patientsfamilies/Site1393/mainpageS1393P4sublevel78.html

Ok you might have to copy and paste that link. I never can get them to hyperlink. LOL