Ollie's MRI - August 31st

August 31, 2011

Today we went down to Iowa City for Oliver's MRI that was originally scheduled for the 14th of September. Since some symptoms were reappearing and getting worse we asked for it to be moved up. His left eye is the eye he always wore his patch on. Recently he hasn't been wanting to wear his eye patch because he wants to be 'normal'. Even though he still struggles with double vision, he doesn't wear the patch, and yet he NEVER complains. He just wants to be 'normal' again.

We talked with the doctor who showed us the MRI and said it looked like there was a small bit of growth. He wanted to check with other radiologists to confirm it because he wasn't sure if it was scar tissue or not. The MRI's can be tricky to read. I can't say I was surprised as we figured it had grown, however it still feels like the wind has been knocked out of you. Now what to do...? Oliver was in the room the whole time and knows all that is happening. We've been completely honest with him about our options... or lack there of. Oliver is in charge of these decisions. This is HIS fight and we will support him every step of the way. Please keep him in your prayers.

Oliver in the children's waiting area watching the moving sculpture.

Mike, Jen, Mom, Ollie, Ed

Ollie in dad's hat.

Ollie getting some goodies from Jen!

Ollie and Mike Ernster.

Jen, Ollie, Mike. They are two of our favorite people to visit down there! ALL the people that have helped us have been GREAT... seriously. There is something special about the people that work down there!

Me, Ollie and Ed

Ummmmm... playing football in the hallway of the hospital. Don't worry, it wasn't a MAIN hallway! ;o)

Kinnick Stadium -- where Oliver will be Kid Captain soon!!! It is directly across the street from the hospital.

The street was lined with posters of each of this years Kid Captains! Oliver is the third one down.

At Applebees, eating steak of course. I'm so happy he can still swallow and be able to enjoy his favorite foods.

"Don't smile.... DON'T SMILE, OLLIE!!!"

Oliver has really been into Indiana Jones lately and we saw this photo on the wall near our table!

One of the many Herky statues around town!

Kid's Day - Iowa Hawkeyes Football

August 13, 2011

Today was Kids Day at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City to watch the Iowa Hawkeye football team in action! Since Oliver will be a Kid Captain at the September 17th home game vs. Pittsburgh, all of the families were invited for a special tour of the stadium and fun photo ops!

Right after we arrived. Waiting for the tour.

In their locker room. I loved the big Tigerhawk on the floor!

Eden

All of the Kid Captains. You can read all about them HERE.

Good advice for life I think...

The Pink Locker Room at

Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium

By Tim Hyland, About.com Guide

Iowa's Kinnick Stadium is home to a unique visitor's locker room—painted almost entirely in pink.
Teams that visit Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium don’t just have to deal with Kirk Ferentz’s Hawkeyes, or the usually insane Kinnick crowds, or late-season weather that can range from bad to miserable.

They also have to deal with … the pink locker room.

Yes, the visitor’s locker room at Kinnick is painted pink. The walls are pink. The floors are pink. The toilets are pink. It’s pink everywhere.

The locker room is beloved and controversial. And at least according to one Iowa coaching legend, it is a big key to Iowa’s home-field success.

Gridiron Psychology

The pink locker room was the brainchild of legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry.

Fry was a psychology major at Baylor University, and once read that the color pink can have a calming effect on people.

So after he arrived at Iowa, Fry ordered pink for Kinnick’s visiting locker room. Some say Fry actually believed the color would calm his team’s opponents. Others believe he just wanted to mess with their heads.

As Fry wrote in his book, “A High Porch Picnic”: “When I talk to an opposing coach before a game and he mentions the pink walls, I know I've got him. I can't recall a coach who has stirred up a fuss about the color and then beat us."

Bo Hates Pink

Among the coaches who were annoyed by the pink locker room was Michigan’s Bo Schembechler.

By most accounts, Schembechler absolutely hated the locker room, going so far as to have his staff bring along paper from Michigan to cover the walls when his team played there. His efforts didn’t always work, however: Under Schembechler, Michigan was just 2-2-1 at Kinnick.

An Unexpected Controversy

As part of a massive renovation of Kinnick Stadium in 2004, the pink locker room got even pinker, as pink lockers, toilets and showers were installed to go along with the pink walls.

That didn’t sit well with some Iowa law professors and students, who in 2005 protested the locker room on the grounds that it reinforced stereotypes of women and homosexuals as weak. They charged that by having the pink locker room, Iowa was endorsing discrimination of those groups.

The protests caused a stir for a while, but public opinion seemed strongly in favor of the tradition. As Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins wrote that year: “I'm sure I should be more upset about the pink decor in the visitors' dressing room at Iowa. But as it happens, my violent knee-jerk reaction is that it's merely funny. If the armies of feminism want to change my thinking on that, they're going to have to slap electrodes to my pretty little forehead and zap me until I stop giggling.”

The pink locker room remains pink today.

And yes, pink... actually, 'dusty rose' urinals!

Eden helping carry Phineas.

Where the players come out onto the field.

The kids with "Herky". Evidently Finny isn't so fond of mascots. He's clinging onto Eden for dear life!

With the Hawkeye cheerleaders.

This is a mini version of the posters that will be put up around the hospital. :O)

We looked out the window to see the long lines forming to get into Kids Day.

Finny just loves to eat condiments. It's like his finger is a 'Fun Dip' stick!

HUG or HEIMLICH!?!

Ollie and Papa

Me and Ed

LOVE this pic of Edes!

Ollie and Mama

Outside Kinnick Stadium

Ollie's favorite player from last year, Adrian Clayborn, who now plays for Tampa Bay.