An Owie

Almost 2 weeks ago I got to be the Mommy of a big owie. Mackenzie ran back into our house to get her backpack for school. As she was returning to the car, she fell down 2 steps hitting her head on a box and split her head open. She was not crying. She came out to the car with tissue over her left side of her face. She was climbing in the car to "get to school Mom" when I made her move the tissue so I could see the owie. This is what I saw . . .

Being a nurse I shouldn't have an issue with this as blood is never an issue for me. However, on this occasion I did NOT expect this huge gash on her head. Momentarily I got nauseous but then the adrenaline hit. She was concerned about getting to school and I said oh no we were going to the ER. I mentioned stitches and that is when she started to cry. As soon as we go to ER and they mentioned they could glue it instead of stitches the tears stop and she was a trooper. The beauty of a local small hospital ER - we were in and out in 35 minutes and this is how she looked.

It is almost 2 weeks later and she is looking better every day. She did not get a black eye as I was sure she would. She is a tough one! This is what she looks like this morning.

Growing Up

Well, last weekend was Mackenzie's 6th birthday so we decided it is time (maybe past time) she gets out of the office/nursery next to our room. The room that was an office before we moved in to this house was a perfect nursery as it has a pocket door to our room. That put the kids less than 15 feet from my side of the bed (naturally my side not his). It worked great for Chase and he moved to his own room when Mackenzie was done in the cradle in our room. Well, Mackenzie has been in the nursery since about 3 months old. Her next door is not so much the issue as it is that she comes into our bed about 2 am EVERY night! A king size bed is only so big!

I have had plans - purchased a wallpaper mural and paint several months ago! One thing or another kept me from just doing it! Well, yesterday was the day! My BFF Jill got a babysitter for her 4 year old (who is adorable but would NOT have been much help). She came over and we got a large chunk of it done while the kids were at school. I got the mural up and she came and helped paint. We got half of the room painted. The half we got done is the part with the door, closet, window and mural to paint around. Thus, the remaining half is just open wall that should go quickly. I am also planning to paint the ceiling as ALL of the painting in this house was done in flat wall paint - UGH!

I picked up Mackenzie from school and got her home telling her I had a surprise for her. Of course, she came blazing in the house wanting to know where is the surprise. You see, she had NO idea we were doing the back bedroom for her! She loves horse and I had worked hard to fins a horse mural and match paint to it. Needless to say, she was VERY excited when she opened the door and saw this . . .

Hello Fall

Been a while since a post so thought I would post tonight just to prove I am alive. It is definitely fall here in Chelan. The temperatures have gone down to a high of 70 in the day and the high 30s to maybe 45 at night. Gone are the shorts and the hooded sweatshirts are out.

The kid are staying busy in school. Chase loves first grade and his teacher. He knows his sight words for first and second grade - all 400 of them and is started reading chapter books and loves it. He has gotten 100% on all 5 spelling tests so far! I am so proud of him. He has soccer practice two afternoons a week and had his first soccer game on Saturday. He was a very tired boy after that game. He even took a nap this afternoon which he NEVER does and was still ready for bed at bedtime. Mackenzie is started on her sight words and on her first books in kindergarten. She is tired by the end of the week as she has soccer practice one afternoon a week in addition to full day kindergarten 5 days a week. She has the same teacher Chase had last year and loves that she knows the routine. She really misses being at home with Mommy so we do a lot of encouragement some days to get her going and other days she is ready to go.

We are ready for fall and love the change of weather. Wishing a happy fall to all of you!

My Baby Grows Up

Well, as the beginning of school approaches, I am realizing how much the kids have grown up. Mackenzie is spending this week and next week in 4 day a week 9 am - 2 pm KinderCamp at the elementary school in order to get the routine down. She is absolutely loving it and I am having separation anxiety. Chase has been in school at least part time for 3 1/2 years and Mackenzie has been a constant at home. Even last year she was only in preschool for 3 half days - and that 2 1/2 hours flew by for me. In a mere 3 weeks, I will be sending both of them off to full day school. How do they grow so fast?

Mackenzie has really enjoyed her first few days of KinderCamp. On the first day, I drove her to school and when I went to pick her up, she wanted to ride the bus home with her friends. Thankfully Mr. Peck (the fabulous principal at MOE) could quickly arrange for that so Chase and I drove home and waited for her to come home on the bus. I asked her what she did at school and got some fragmented little snippets. I thought a more pointed question would give me the information I was looking for so I asked what her favorite parts of her day were . . . her reply - riding the bus home ang getting chocolate milk for breakfast AND lunch at school. I asked what else she had for lunch - her reply - I can't remember exactly but maybe a corn dog but I DID have chocolate milk. On day two, we waited out front of the house and the bus came down the hill, she was so excited to run out to meet it. She climbed on the bus and sat down. I stood in the driveway waving - - - she didn't even look out the window at me - she was busy visiting with her friends . . . I cried! She arrived safely home on the bus after day 2 - her favorites that day - recess and chocolate milk! She is on the bus on her way to school this morning as I type (again no wave for Mommy, but no tears either). I am sure she will have fun. She comes home and hugs Chase immediately but doesn't seem at all worried about what she "missed" by not being home. I wonder what will join chocolate milk as her favorites today - guess I will find out at 2:45 pm when she gets home. . .

No More Preschoolers

It is now official, I am no longer the parent of a preschooler. Mackenzie "graduated" from preschool on Thursday evening in a very cute little ceremony. Mrs. Hunter and Mrs. Stevens (and with the help this year of Mrs. Kehl) always do a great job and this was no different. The pre-4 class were so cute in their performance and their moving up, but when did they start looking so tiny - it is hard to come to grips that Mackenzie was that little only one short year ago. The pre-K kids got to wear caps and gowns and were so cute! As any good mother does, I cried at several points in the evening. The kids sang God Bless America (which they had been practicing at home, in the car, in the store, to any one who would listen, etc, etc, etc - for a MONTH) and it was good even though I had heard it way too many times in the practicing phase. The did a few other songs and then got their diplomas and presented gifts to Mrs. Stevens (for her new baby) and Mrs Kehl for helping out all year. Then off to snacks and punch outside and home with tired kids, grandparents and parents . . . and alas no more preschoolers. :(

Nurse Kenzie

It seems that as I get farther from my nurse on the job experience, my 4 year old daughter gets more proficient at helping me "do it right". I (or maybe I should say we) have to change his dressing every morning and when it is time, she is right there to help! If I don't do it EXACTLY like I did the day before she gets upset and fixes it for me. She feels that I am not qualified to provide proper care to her Daddy without her supervision and advice. Thanks Nurse Kenzie for all your guidance (I could do it so much more quickly without you - BUT I wouldn't have the memories like this).

Busy Week

the kids enjoyed snuggles with Daddy while camping last weekend before his surgery




This was one of those weeks when I feel I should just sleep in the car - it truly would save time and much needed energy.



Dave had his left knee replacement surgery on Tuesday in Wenatchee so I ran kids to school in the AM and raced home to pick them up in the PM on Wed as my parents graciously helped on Tuesday (surgery day) and on Thursday (to bring them to visit Daddy after school) and on Friday (when he got to come home). I put a lot of miles on my little car and it feels like as many on my little feet. Thanks to Mom and Dad and to Jill who helped a lot with Mackenzie this week. I couldn't have done it without you all. The good news is that he is healing well and all looks much better than on any of the three replacements in the last 5 years on the right side. With any luck, he will be up and around and better than before by the time the kids get out of school.



The kids were so very happy to have him home - as am I! They are being very helpful in taking care of our patient (almost to the point of nuisance).



Well, I am headed off to bed soon as Dave had a lot of nightmares last night and was yelling in his sleep which woke me several times and led to me eventually in a stuperous sleep to grab a magazine and swap it across the bed at him as if to swat a fly - seems harse but it worked for the rest of the night (if that is what you call the hours of 3:30 - 6:30 am).



Good night all and may the Lord bless and keep you all safe.

Earth Day

Living in a small community town has lots of benefits (and some drawbacks) but on most occasions I love it. This weekend is one of those times I love it. There is a very large contingent of Earth Day supporters here and we even have an Earth Day Fair on the 3rd Saturday of April every year. It is always a fun place to visit. I love the Friends of the Library Used Book Sale every year (gently used kids books for 25 cents each). You can buy all sorts of plant starts and observe lots of earth saving items/inventions. The kids always love the snack and this year the face painting. The pictures for today are of them yesterday with their faces painted (Chase is a cheetah and Kenzie has a unicorn and stars) right before we got our fruit smoothies & Bubble Tea from Blenderz (http://blenderzchelan.com/) and a hot bag of kettle corn. It was a fun morning walk through Riverwalk Park with the kids before Mom and Dad came for the afternoon to do laundry and give Buddy at chance to run around outside.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Yesterday Mackenzie decided to choose her own clothes for the day. She is 4 almost 5 years old so her sense of coordinating clothes is limited to wearing her favorite shirt, her favorite pants and her favorite jacket irregardless of whether they even remotely match. Here is her choice for yesterday.

Not to be outdone by her granddaughter, my mother had her picture taken by my Dad this morning in her chosen warm attire for trimming the dog. It takes a lot of self confidence to post this type of picture online and admit she is truly one of a kind . . . My Mom!

PS - I know Melissa (my sister) is in full agreement that Mom's outfit in this picture lacks a little for tastefulness.

Is It A Funny Day or Even Day Mom?

Out of the mouth's of the little one's come so many things that brighten my days.

After a tough weekend dealing with a bad case of the flu, it is a good morning here at the Rogge house. We are enjoying Spring Break week and the upcoming festivities of Megan & Janson's marriage and reception as well as some fun family time.

At our house, we have a constant challenge over whose day it is to pick things (movies, which way we go to town, who helps out, etc). When I was a kid, my parents solved this issue with Even & Odd Day - the first child (me) got to do the chosing on odd days and the second child (my sister) got to chose on even days. Admittedly this only works well with 2 kids (or at least when only two have the battles). So when this became an issue for us about 3 months ago I thought Aha - Mom knew what she was doing and we insituted her Even/Odd rule. Chase is the oldest and gets Odd days so Kenzie gets Even days. In the beginning this was a much bigger deal for Chase than for Kenzie (not because he wanted to choose but because he was assured it was even-steven between them). Now Mackenzie is the one that wants to know if it is her day to pick (not because she wants it even-steven - she is egocentric and wants to pick naturally). When we get up in the morning, I can count on her asking in the first hour we are awake whose day it is. As she gets ever closer to five years old (how did that happen so quickly), she is more into even versus odd then "whose day" but this morning she hit me with a new one. "Mommy, is it a funny day or an even day?" At first I was puzzled and then realized her question, she now understands that "odd" means "funny" in her book or at least out of the ordinary so naturally a synonym for "odd" should be "funny". The moral of the story for her was it was an even day so she got to chose but I was most amused by her thesaurus in her brain that substituted "funny" for odd in her questioning. Gotta love kiddos!

FINALLY A DIAGNOSIS

After over 6 weeks of testing and normal results and testing and normal results, etc~~~We finally found the problem today. Mackenzie was not getting better instead more fatigued and continuing with the fevers. This week she started complaining of her "brain" hurting. I was done being nice and just taking the "we don't find anything" answer~I called the pediatrician yesterday and got a little (OK maybe more than little) pushy about seeing him and getting answers. We had an appointment this morning at 9 AM in Wenatchee. Up and at 'em early and off we went to Wenatchee. The pediatrician ordered a repeat CBC and C reactive protein and a sinus CT. If all those were normal, we would move to a sedated MRI. We went across the street, had the blood work done and the CT scan done. We went back and waited for results and him to review them. Finally at 11:45 we got the answer - A RAGING SINUS INFECTION!!

Yes, after all of these tests, fevers, missed school days, sleepless nights for Mommy, Daddy, Grandparents, etc - it was a sinus infection. Her right sinus is completely impacted with infection and the left is half impacted with infection. The picture is amazing. Thankfully it is an easy fix and is a self-limiting issue. We start antibiotics and nasal spray tonight and will have yogurt at lunch every day and hopefully we will be on the mend.

Thanks to all for thought and prayer!

Mackenzie

UPDATE!!

We went to see the pediatrician today for our follow up. She has NOT run a fever of more than 99.8 since Saturday at noon. All her tests from Friday are normal. Her temp was 99.7 at the doctor today. He called the rheumatologist at Children's while we were there and had the call on speaker phone so I got to hear and ask questions as I wanted. With all that has been done, since her fever is coming down, we are going to watch her for another week and see him next Tuesday the 10th. If the fever continues on its path to going away, we will just figure she had a bug of some sort and be thankful it went away FINALLY. If the fever comes back, we will go to a head MRI to look at her hypothalamus. For the non-medical people, we have ruled out problems with the car engine, carbuerator, etc but the car is still overheating so we have to check out the thermostat (her hypothalamus). In a car, we check the thermostat first, in people we check in last when we can't find a reason for the overheating. She was thrilled to get to go back to school after missing 3 weeks. Mackenzie said this morning that her "sick had passed away and she was all better now". Let's hope she is right!

(posted to Facebook on Saturday - copied here for the whole story for those not on Facebook)

After lots of posts about things going on and lots of requests for more information on Facebook, I decided that maybe this was the best way to update now and keep updating as we continue this. She began running fevers of 101-102 four weeks ago yesterday. She is also more tired late in the day and has a varying appetite which is unusual for her. No other symptoms at all!

I let it go for about 10 days then I started with our local doctor (Waszkewitz - love, love, love him). After a round of blood work, UA and chest xray with no finidings, he referred us to a pediatrician at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center on January 23.The pediatrician started with repeating some blood work on Wed the 28th in an effort to rule out leukemia and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis by watching her platelet count and her C-reactive protein. Those remain normal. Her alkaline phosphatase continues to be elevated with no good reason. All he mono screens are negative for mono now however she has indication in blood work that she has had it in the past.

Friday the 30th we saw the pediatrician again and he did more blood work (LDH & TORCH screen), another urinalysis, a repeat chest xray and a thorough abdominal ultrasound. I talked to him yesterday the 31st and the LDH is normal (can be elevated in childhood cancers), chesst xray is normal, urinalysis is normal and abdominal ultrasound is normal (no Wilm's tumor, no neoblastoma, no masses, no liver abnormalities, no spleen, kidney or pancreas abnormalities). We are also doing stool cultures to rule out salmonella and ghiardia.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and I will update this as we no more information. I tried to answer all of the questions that have been sent but may have inadvertently missed something.

PS - for those who don't know - my mother came up for 10 days to help out through parts of this so that was a HUGE help.

Mackenzie's Hair Cut

Many of you in blogland know that my daughter Mackenzie is 4 years old and has lots of long hair - maybe I should say she DID have lots of long hair. Recently she has come to notice that all her little friends have short hair and of course Mommy has short hair. She all of a sudden started asking to have her hair cut. I made an appt for it and waited the days out for her to make sure she was really sure. After several days of waiting, she jumped out of bed this morning very excited about getting her hair cut. We are done and home. She had enough to put in 4 ponytails that were 10 inches long so she can donate to Locks of Love. She is excited about other kids having her hair. She looks so cute and grown up with the new hair cut. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Update from Minnesota

Just a quick morning update from Rochester while the kids watch cartoons. This is our last full day in Rochester as we leave tomorrow at 12:15 pm to fly home and should arrive in Wenatchee at 9:05 pm pending all flights going right, so cross your fingers!

Let's see where did I leave off. I think it was Friday and we had just come home from the hospital. Friday afternoon a long time friend of Dave's named Shari came from Mankato to meet the kids and I and check on Dave's progress. We had a great visit for almost 3 hours in the hotel room and then the kids and I went out to dinner with her before she drove home. It was nice to meet her and I know we plan to keep in touch from here forward. After she headed home, the kids and I went to the indoor play area at the mall and they played for over an hour and were exhausted when they finished. Then we all got Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream and headed back to the hotel for the night.

On Saturday, we all slept in a bit and took it easy for the morning. We then ran a few errands of things Dave needed from Walmart and watched it snow (yes, snow) here for the afternoon. It quit snowing long enough to visit the park for a little bit but not long so we went to an early dinner and came back to the pool for a swim (one of the kids' favorite things to do). Dave had a painful day as the swelling is going down to the there is more bone pain everyday.

Sunday started with a migraine for me. The kids let me rest it off for an hour then we headed off to church and then to have pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids. That got Kenzie's 3 yr pics done and we got a few of Chase too and of course them together and then one of the three of us. We tried the park again on this afternoon and got to play a little longer but again resorted to coming back to the hotel and getting dinner then enjoying a movie together. Another cery painful day for Dave but he is getting more mobile so that is no surprise.

Monday morning we had to get up and get going in order to get Dave in the shower and over to the clinic for a blood draw to check his PT & INR as he is on Coumadin for 6 weeks. While we were there we had to pick up his pain patches as we did not have enough of them with us (there is a whole box at home in Chelan). They nearly had to resuscitate me after they totalled it and for 3 boxes of 2 different doses of his Duragesic patches it was $1384.00!! Ouch!! Will work on that one with the insurance when we return home!! After we got Dave back and settled, the kids and I took off on our geography lesson day! Being a Little House on the Prairie fan, Mom and I have even gotten Mackenzie into them too. We took off south on Highway 63 and went to Spring Valley, Minnesota where the church is that Laura and Almanzo attended in the early 1890s. It was closed for tours but we got to see it and of course take pictures! Then we took off further south through Preston and on to Harmony, Minnesota. For those who don't know, Harmony has the largest Amish Community in Minnesota. Not far out of Preston we started seeing Amish horse & carriages on the highway. The actually have a two lane road with additional lanes on each side just for the Amish travelers. Mackenzie was quite intrigued with this. She also liked to look for tired and not tired barns. Some of the barns out here are falling down and she called those tired barns and any not falling down were not tired. We got into Harmony and stopped for a visit at the Amish gift shops. We got a few little items including an Amish porcelain doll for both kids (Chase has a boy doll) and an Amish quilt wall hanging for us and for my parents. My Mom loves to read the Barbara Lewis books about Amish communities. On we went on our drive south (seeing more Amish people along the way) and ended up in Burr Oak, Iowa. That is the location of the last standing original home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We were able to tour this home which was actually a hotel where the Ingalls' worked. Very interesting! We then drove back again watching for Amish people. We did stop at an Amish home that had a gift shop area where Mackenzie got a horse basket made of wood. It was neat to see their lives. The kids learned a lot about a variety of things and we all enjoyed the day. We made it back by about 4 pm and had dinner and then went swimming AGAIN!

Today was planned to make a return trip to Mall of America but we have to get things packed and ready first so we will see what happens. Dave is more mobile everyday and we are so very thankful to Dr. Hannsen and Dr. Nett for their care in fixing his knee. We are all very ready to get back to our home and our routine though!

Thanks again for all the prayers and good thoughts during our travels! Lots of pictures to follow once we are home!

The Good News and the Not-So-Good News

Well, lets see - I like to get the not-so-good first so that is how I will type this entry to cover the events of a Monday at the Rogge house for three of us and Dave's first day of appointments at the Mayo Clinic.

After Friday night trip (pictured above) to the ER for Mackenzie's ears, she was getting no better so we had no choice but to call Dr. Waz to report . . . Mackenzie and I have both been struggling with the "Chelan Crud" AKA a cold and managed to both get ear infections so we went to the clinic this morning to get the antibiotics to rid ourselves of those prior to our flights back east later this week. She is very tired and resistive to the ear drops, so much so that her brother gets all her comfort things ready for her and stands by and counts to 100 for her after I put the drops in. She thinks that at the end of the count to 100 it will feel better so usually Dave counts after the drops but while Daddy is away Chase is being the man of the house and helping me in lots of ways especially counting after ear drops. I just tucked him in to bed and as he said his prayers he included this line "please help my sister to get better so she doesn't have to have ear drops anymore."

Dave had a good day at the Mayo Clinic today. They drew blood, took x-rays and he saw the orthopedic surgeon. The doctor drew some fluid off of the knee although it was difficult for him to get any fluid which is a good sign. Upon reviewing Dave's x-rays right after the knee replacement 3 years ago and the ones taken today, it appears that the prosthesis has actually gotten moved out of place a bit. The doctor is hopeful that it is indeed not infected but rather just malfunctioning due to being out of place. They are doing a culture of the fluid and repeating his bone scan just to be sure there aren't indicators of infection. If those all are normal, then he will go in for surgery on Monday and based on what the doctor finds, he will either take the prosthesis out and fill the joint with antibiotic beads and cast his leg straight for 2 months and then re-do the knee OR if there is no sign of infection and he feels it is ok to re-do the knee right then, he will take out the old one and put in the new one which would mean no second trip back there for surgery!!! As you can imagine we are praying for the later as this is the first "good" news about his knee in over 5 years since the original one was done in March 2003.

So there it is, Kenzie and I are sick, Dave got good news and Chase is holding down the fort for Daddy while he is away. They are counting days till we leave on Friday to go to Seattle and then on Saturday back to Rochester! Chase's parting words to Daddy on the phone tonight were "You are the bestest Daddy in the whole wide world, I love you!"

Mayo Clinic

Well, Dave arrived safely yesterday evening in Rochester, Minnesota. We are all missing him a lot but have lots to do before we leave to meet him there. Due to a lot of flight booking challenges, the kids and I will fly to Seattle on Friday evening at 5 pm and will spend the night there and then leave at 8:25 am on Saturday to fly to Rochester and will arrive there at 5:15 pm CST. That will also give us a day before his surgery to get our feet on the ground and try to get the time change into our sleep patterns.

Today Dave is out roaming around near the hotel and is awestruck by the size of the Mayo Clinic Complex. He is trying to get his bearings as to where he has to be tomorrow and the rest of the week for his medical appts.

The kids are counting night nights until we go see Daddy. Mackenzie has an ear infection and pink eye in both eyes so she is not sleeping well, which means neither am I. We are styaing home from church today as I can't take her with pink eye where she might share with others.

Hope the weather wherever you are is as beautiful as it is here!

Proud Aunt Kenzie

Dave & Kenzie made an afternoon visit to see Raiden AKA "Tater Man" on Wednesday while I was getting my hair done. Kenzie just loves to hold and coo over Raiden. Chase says hi and that is about it - typical boy but Kenzie thinks he belongs to her. Raiden got hungry while they were there and Heather was quick with the camera to get this precious picture of her feeding him. Obvious to she loves him!

Busy, busy, busy week

Just when I think things are going to slow down, another week is upon me and the calendar is again FULL! We had a nice Easter and got to see Megan & Josh and their families for a while that afternoon. The kids and I were dressed up for church even though the temperature was quite cool.

Monday this week was to be my only "slow" day in that I just had to get Chase to and from school. This morning started with a bang as I dropped of Mackenzie to Daddy at 7:45 am so that Chast and I could make it to school for his kindergarten screening by 8 am. That lasted till 9 am at which time I thought I would run home quickly before dropping Chase off but alas, they have closed the road early today up to our house which necessitates a detour of twice the distance to get back to town and there was no time for that so off to Starbucks for coffee and muffin we went. Dropped Chase off to school, bought tickets for his play Friday night and headed to work for the day. After work today, I am to meet the kids and Dave at the school for our first T-ball practice. Dave was to be the asst coach but they had three teams and only 2 coaches so he got volunteered. The kids are excited about T-ball. Technically Kenzie is not playing but I am sure she will "help" since Dave and I will both be there with Chase and his team. Chase is very excited and both of them went home with Daddy this afternoon for naps so they are rested.

Tomorrow starts with Kenzie at school and I am in her class tomorrow so Daddy will take Chase to school. After school for Kenzie and I we will go visit Jill and Rylee for a bit and then home to get ready for brother's play. He is in the CVIS spring musical called "Honk Jr". He has practice tomorrow morning then PlayEd tomorrow afternoon. Have to pick him up at 4, get him home, fed and dressed and back to theater by 6:15 for the play - in which he is a froglet. Play starts at 7 so likely we won't be home till 9ish.

Thursday starts off early with speech therapy for Chase at 8:25 then he is off to school while Kenzie goes to the dentist again for another filling. Then a quick run home to change for dance class. Pick up brother at noon. Go home and NAP! T-ball practice at 5 pm again. Then home for dinner and bed!

Friday Kenzie to school, Chase to school, Mommy to work - all by 10 am! Daddy to pick up Kenzie at 11:30. Mommy to pick up Chase at 4 pm to go home eat, change clothes and head for Wenatchee to be to the PAC by 6:15 pm for the play down there. Megan and her family will meet us there to see him. Home late that night.

Mommy works on Saturday and Daddy is alone as the babysitter is out of town for the first weekend of Spring Break. We are home till mid-week - I have my last follow-up regarding my neck on the 1st - then we plan to go see my mother-in-law and take in the tulips in Mt Vernon for a few days while the kids are out of school, have no T-ball and no dance.

I did notify my boss today that I will no longer be able to work regular 2-3 days a week after April as the kids are so busy and I do not like to miss their activities. She was very nice about it and understands totally so I will return to very part time work and be a full time Mom again! :)

Don't know if posts will fit in the schedule this week so if not - catch up again next week hopefully!

On the Mend

Good morning everyone!

I am up and about. The kids (yes both finally) are back to school and the house is very quiet. Mom and I have offered to run around the house screaming for one another if it feels too quiet but neither of us have had that urge yet. Mackenzie has taken the opportunity to enjoy some one on one time with Daddy, Mommy and Mamma while Chase is in school as he started back a week earlier than she did. Yesterday, I caught this shot of Kenzie enjoying games on playhousedisney.com on Daddy's laptop while Daddy was snoozing. It seemed to work for the two of them clearly. She was ready to go back to school though as she didn't even finish her pancake for breakfast as she was ready to go!!

I am feeling quite a bit better today. I was up all day yesterday and today I got lunches ready for school and got Kenzie dressed and I was showered and dressed myself by 8:30 am. Not bad in comparison to a week ago. I see the internist tomorrow and I have no reason to believe that I won't get to be off the oxygen then. I am done with nebulizer treatments and am breathing much better. The recovery for my neck will be the same 12 weeks regardless so will have the lovely brace for a while and then a soft collar but at least I can breathe and have energy today. Now I am not ready to run a marathon but the idea of being up all day at home and taking care of myself and helping with little ones does not seem to be a daunting task at this point.

Mom flies home on Friday. Chase has gotten wise to that so yesterday he was too "sick" to go to school but we beat his game as he had to go to bed for a nap instead of school. Last night Mom commented that she was going to go call Papa and Chase ran to her and said "yes, you can call Papa because now you have 3 night nights left here but after you call Papa, you will have 6 night nights here". He could remember that when Mamma said on Saturday that she was calling Papa that as soon as she got off the phone that meant Mamma was staying for a few more days as that was the day Dad sent her meds so she could stay till Friday. Funny how that little mind works so fast. Mom told Dad about that last night and he was not so keen on the idea as Chase was.

I am feeling enough better that I have started my to do list in preparation for our trip (which we leave on in less than 4 weeks) and am ordering tickets for Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and narrowing down the selection for a Broadway show while in NYC. I am getting excited. We did select our on-shore excursions for the cruise before my surgery and heard from the travel agent that she has our cruise documents that she will deliver today so it is getting to be so real. Now I just have to be a good girl and stay on the mend. Thanks so much to all for thoughts and prayers.

My niece Rachel is 3 months old already - hard to believe. They had family pictures and her 3 months pictures taken the other day and I just LOVE this one. I love the grin on her face like - I got you!! She is so much bigger than her sister was at this age it is hard to believe the difference. They had a great family picture to and I had to share.

BIG Catch-up Post

Well, it has been quite a while since I have posted but it has been busy times around our house, so I will do my best to catch-up on the last few weeks.

We had an enjoyable trip over to the westside to have an early Christmas with the big kids and the grandkids. A good time was had by all. We draw names and exchange gifts and usually invade Stephanie & Ken's house for the occasion on the odd years as the kids and grandkids all come to us in even years. Our little ones had a lot of fun playing with the grandkids. The youngest little grandkid is Travis and he is growing like a weed and this picture proves how much Papa loves him.

While we were in Seattle we met my sister and her kids for the annual grandkid photo for our parents. The kids are growing a lot and Rachel is changing everyday. It seems like yesterday we started this tradition with little Chase holding babies on either side of him. Here is a picture from that day too.

Chase had his Christmas program at CVIS on Friday the 14th and he sang out and did a great job on Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. He was all dressed up handsome and was quite proud of himself. His last day of school before the break was the 17th and they had a Santa's workshop that day and a visit from the jolly gentleman in red too. Here is a picture of Chase in front of our tree just before he went to school for his program. He is very active in participating in songs in class but is usually quite shy and has stage-fright for any "performance" so we were very proud of him for singing out and being a good little performer.

We also managed to take in the visit to Santa and the reindeer at the Whaley Mansion here in town. Mackenzie got to go on a limo bus to see the reindeer with her preschool and then the kids and I went to see them and Santa the next day. Chase loved the first room we entered as it had a big train set up on a BIG table and it was running around and around. He could have stayed in that room all day and skipped Santa all together. They took some nice pictures while we were there as you can see.

Mackenzie had her first preschool Christmas program on the 21st and Mamma and Papa even made the trip in time to see it. Boy has my little girl changed in the last 3 months. At the beginning of school she was very shy and didn't even want to stay and at her program she was the star of the show as she was so into it and animated with her participation. It was so cute and of course that is recorded on film too. (oh, both kids programs are on DVD as well for anyone to watch as they love to watch themselves and tell all about it). At the end of her program, the jolly gentleman in red made an appearance again (we have seen him over a half dozen times this season).

My parents (AKA Mamma or Dramma or Grams and Papa) were her for 9 "night nights" as the kids call them. They left today to go to my sister's in Bothell and get a grandkid fix there. We were able to enjoy a lot of snow and a very white Christmas while they were here. We also got to visit reindeer and Santa in the snow at Banjo Creek Farms on the 22nd, which all enjoyed. Originally they were to have 2 reindeer there but "Dasher" as he is now called, escaped on Friday night and they still haven't found him. Papa had a cold and congestion while they were here so Mamma spent the afternoon of Sunday after church in the local ER with him. We all helped to take care of him and get him well.

We enjoyed a great family Christmas and the kids were thrilled with the visit from Santa, which Chase discovered the evidence of at 6:30 am on Christmas morning and woke us all to see. We had a great dinner. Mom helped with it as my neck is not tolerating that much time with my arms up working at counter height. Santa brought Chase a new bicycle (his first big boy bike) and brought Mackenzie a playhouse. They were both very happy. Dave & I got a webcam from my parents so we are now able to talk to and see them from the computer. The kids love it!!

As my parents were getting ready to leave this morning, I got a call from the neurosurgeon in Wenatchee. I had an appt with him scheduled for January 25th as that was the earliest he could see me about my neck. They had a cancellation today and I got to see him at 2 pm. While he was seeing me, he had a patient call and cancel surgery for next Wednesday the 2nd of January so he is going to fix my neck next Wednesday at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. I will stay overnight and get to go home sometime Thursday. I should be well onto the recovery and be fine for our trip in February. It is nice to be able to have it done before the trip as it looked like I wouldn't even see him till right before the trip. They will remove the herniated disc and fuse the C5-C6 vertebrae with a plate and screws as well as a bone graft. I will have a lot of lifting restrictions for 3 months (that will be hard for the kids to understand) but he anticipates that I will have pain relief very soon after surgery. The kids understand that he will be cutting my neck and for a while Mackenzie was afraid he would make me into a "pick-up head" (this is what she calls the animated franksteins at Halloween that seemingly lift their own head off of their neck - she hates them) but I have convinced her that my head will stay attached. Now she tells me that "the doctor will cut your neck and then he will needle it to make it back together" - needling is her verbage for sewing.

Lastly but certainly not least, we are expecting any day the arrival of Raiden Xavier, our new grandson (Josh & Heather's baby). He is due on the 2nd of January and they will induce her on the 3rd if she doesn't have it before then. As you can see she is quite pregnant and getting more uncomfortable by the day.

Well, that is an update from her for now and I will try to do better in the upcoming weeks and plan to blog while on our trip.

Happy New Year to you all!