Hi everyone.  i wanted to start this blog to keep in touch with many of you i haven't talked to in some time, to share photos on a more regular basis (sorry, Mom) and also to keep you all updated on Paige's health (she is doing great).

i couldn't come up with a better name for the blog other than Spicka's World. if it works for Elmo it will work for us (today's blog entry is brought to you by the letter P and the number 10).

My other motivation for starting this blog was that we are headed to Walt Disney World in May for Paige's Make A Wish trip and i wanted to find a way to share photos and stories from the trip while we are there. The wonderful Make A Wish volunteers met with us in January and asked Paige if she could do anything, be anything or go anywhere, what it would be. i recall her first choice was to go to Megan's house (Megan lives next door, i don't know what they do when Paige visits but it must be one heck of a time). Aside from going to visit Megan, Paige wants to be a princess, meet the princesses and also be in a Disney parade, and that's what she's going to do.

As i think you all know, Paige was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which means the entire left side of her heart doesn't function. She's had three open heart surgeries (the Norwood Procedure, the Glenn Procedure and the Fontan) over the span of about 2 years plus a few other minor surgeries. The right side of her heart has been 're-plumbed' to do all the work that should be done by the left and right sides, and it's pretty much a miracle that she lives the life of a normal 6 year old. We have many, many people to thank and are incredibly grateful to the wonderful staff at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (only 18 minutes away if you are flooring it to get to the ER). 

Paige is now a kindergartener at Big Bend Elementary School, takes swimming lessons and gymnastics class weekly. Her teacher, Ms. Johnson, reports she sometimes talks to her neighbors too much but is good otherwise. She loves clothes and makeup and at last report wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up (that or a firefighter, working with Daddy). Maybe we can incorporate the two and she can design the next generation of turnout gear...we should look into that.

i figured before we headed to Florida i better make sure i know how update this blog (this may come as a shock to some of you but i'm somewhat technologically challenged), so i uploaded a few photos from the past few months.

Here is Paige sledding in our backyard last January with Truckee, one of our two dogs. He's a big boy (100#) and loves to play with Paige. We'll talk about Truckee a bit later. 

Grandy and Gramps came to visit us last Christmas, and Paige and Grandy made this gingerbread house.   Take a close look and see the entire thing is covered in white frosting (which was rock hard several hours later). We'll come back to the gingerbread house a bit later.

Paige turned 6 in February and had her entire kindergarten class over to Monkey Joe's for a party (a big warehouse filled with huge bouncy houses). Here she is with Kaitlynn opening some presents. 

She likes to ride Zee, our horse, when she's at the barn. Zee's no dummy, he knows that when Paige rides him he gets to walk around incredibly slowly (his favorite speed) and not work hard. Zee likes Paige and Paige likes Zee.

We had a second birthday party for the grown-ups at the house, and here she is about to blow out the candles on her cake. She's so excited she's about to explode.

Paige and Dad went to the Father Daughter Dance at school about a month ago. They had a wonderful time, Paige loves to put on fancy dresses for any occasion. 

Remember that gingerbread house that Paige and Grandy made at Christmas? Here it is after spending a few hours alone with Truckee. No, not the one in the upper right hand corner (that was a second gingerbread house). The white box on the counter (which had been the 'house') was licked clean, as was the cardboard base in the lower left hand corner.  

We had a fair amount of snow this year. Our neighbor, Chris, has a snowmobile. He and Jim took turns one Saturday afternoon to see how high they could get it off the ground going over a jump. We still have the gouge in the lawn to prove he did this. 

i wasn't home for the snowmobile launching event, and i trust Paige didn't take part in it. But she does love riding on that snowmobile (in case you're wondering, its parked in the photo, she doesn't drive it around by herself).

A few weeks ago Paige's kindergarden class put on a play called "The Three Little Pigs Blues" and she was to dress up like a rock star. The shiny black boots didn't photograph well but she looked very 'rock star like' (thank you, Becca, for the boots).

Paige received a doctor's kit for her birthday (including a pair of blue plastic glasses). Here she is after doing heart surgery on Truckee. That's his tail, behind Paige, wagging back and forth. He is a very good patient and sat very still for the surgery.  Good boy, Truckee.

 After finishing up with Truckee's surgery Paige went to work on Geri, her Godmother. This photo was taken when Paige was explaining why Geri needed multiple shots to her forehead. 

i'm going to do my best to update the blog once a week with additional photos (and if i get really motivated we may have a video or two). i've set up the blog to be private, so in order to view it you must receive an invitation of some sort. if you know of anyone else who might be interested in seeing the blog please email me at rooroo8@yahoo.com.  i only sent up the gmail account to set up this blog, i don't really check it on a regular basis.

Sorry if the lower case i's are annoying. They're annoying to me too but for some reason my keyboard had decided tonight that i can capitaliz all other keys except for the letter i. Maybe its angry i let the letter P sponsor tonight's blog entry, who knows.