Saturday, January 31, 2009

heading out

Well life has gotten alot easier. We had hired a mover to help load here in Iowa. He called and said he had a truck that had to go to Colorado and that he could do the entire move for us, load, drive, and unload. The estimate he gave us was $40 more than it would have cost us with the truck rentals and all. We obviously jumped on the offer. He loads Sunday and unloads Tuesday. So the kids and I are leaving this morning to head to Wichita, and Bob will join us tomorrow night. We will stay with my parents until mid week. The kids and I will be leaving in about 10 minutes.
love to all. see you soon.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Quick Update

We are still alive! :) Busy! We've been working on getting everything packed. We are probably about 70% done packing would be my guess. Really it's probably even more than that but we are down to all the little stuff and clutter that has to be sorted out and all that crap. my least favorite part. We are tired, so moving a bit slower as well. We've had alot of errands over the last few days so that's also taken up a bit of extra time.
We will be getting 2 moving trucks, so atleast that helps with the fears of everything fitting. We still need a bit of additional help on the unloading end, so if anyone is available and would like to help it would be GREATLY appreciated! We will be unloading saturday morning! Food and drink provided of course! :)

Monday, January 26, 2009

Busy week ahead

I'm just wanting to put this out here at the beginning of the week so nobody worries! :) It's going to be a SUPER busy week and there is a good chance I won't be able to update a whole lot. We have alot of stuff to wrap up here this week, and packing in general needs finished! I will try to hop on and update as much as possible and I'll atleast get pictures up once this week! I will even try to get some of the 4 little people running around my house.
I hope everyone has a great week and I will see most of you in LESS THAN 1 week! Love and hugs to all!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Quick Updates

I'm sorry I'm so behind on blogging. It has been sooo busy around here. We made a last minute trip to Wichita last weekend. When we were there a month ago, we had found a house and everything was situated. Well that feel thru. So we headed back up last minute to do a super fast house hunt. Found a great house and were able to do all the paperwork on the spot. Since we've been home, it's been one thing after the next. I came home from Wichita with a stomach bug, so that was super amazing. The kids had something the week or two before and I thought I was safe, but go figure. Now everyone is better though, so that's a good thing.
I had a surgeon recheck on Tuesday. He said everything looks great. I don't have to wear compression anymore at night, and can even have some breaks during the day. I don't have to go back for 4 weeks now! YEA!! He also said I could take a bath. I'm super excited about that. I've had a tooth ache all week and I'm getting that taken care of today so that will be nice as well.
We've spent alot of time packing, and are probably about 60% done. I hate packing, but I'm getting pretty darned good at it lately! :) We've got everything lined up for the move. We decided to hire movers to help load the truck, so that will take alot of work away from us!
The kids are doing good. Excited for the move. They have 1 week left of school here. We've met with teachers, gotten all the final IEP paperwork, etc. So we are getting all of that wrapped up as well.
Today is Bob's last day of work here in Iowa. It will be nice to have him home next week to get everything taken care of around here and wrapped up!

Emotionally I'm doing pretty good. I'm exhausted, on all fronts. So many things are going on, and I've been so busy there hasn't been alot of time to let it all sink in and to process it. There have been alot of extras on the side as well. Alot of friends and family struggling, and I feel like I haven't really been able to support them as much as I would like too. I've been in a bit of "auto pilot" mode. Right now I think that is the only way that I can make it thru all of this. I just want to apologize to those of you who are wondering what's going on, and thinking that I seem a bit distant. So many feelings and emotions that will someday need to be sorted out.

I will close with a picture of me from my night out in Wichita! :)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

We are headed to Wichita. It is negative 30 degrees with a winchill of negative 50. School was cancelled so we packed up and took off. We will be there around dinner tonight until Sunday. The kids are super excited as they haven't been in Wichita since July 4th. Will see lots of you this weekend and I promise to take some photos this time

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

MORE snow

we got ANOTHERR 7 inches of snow last night. we are supposed to get more. our temp is horrible and tomorrow it's supposed to be negative 20. what the heck. I have 2 weeks left here and apparently iowa is planning on making it hell for us. the kids are out of school today AGAIN. So hopefully we can find things to do to keep them busy.








Sunday, January 11, 2009

Pictures!!!

I will start with my post op pics from today.







Next is the promised pictures of the kids. they had a great time taking photos on the stairs! :) The adults went along with it, although we didn't enjoy pics of ourselves quite as much! :)






Saturday, January 10, 2009

HUGE snow storm

It's snowing. It's snow ALOT. we were supposed to get 2 inches and we are around 8. It's still coming down HARD. Here are some photos from 9am this morning!
I will update more photos as the day goes on!








Thursday, January 8, 2009

Surgeon and family life updates

Today was another ultrasound and then my surgeon's appt. The ultrasound showed a very small fluid pocket on the left side, and nothing on the right side this time. So I will obviously be taking it easy! The doc said it wasn't worth draining so we shall see.
Then I had my surgeon. It was NOT fun. The infection is still going on my right side and isn't closing up. He did a few things (don't want to gross anyone out) and all of a sudden we see something blue inside of me tyring to poke out. The cable that held my drain inside of me. When he took the drain out the cable inside came lose and got stuck right under the skin at the opening of the hole. So the cable wasn't allowing the drain hole to close up, which was allowing tons of stuff inside. So an infection was growing all around the cable. So he took the infection and the cable out. Didn't feel to lovely. Now I'm left with a fingertip sized hole in my side. Now it should close up within 24 to 48 hours and the antibiotics should really be able to kick in and heal everything. Other than that he said everything looked good and was healing well.
Now this evening I'm pretty tired and pretty sore.

I haven't blogged much about everything going on here. So here are some basic updates.
Brian is moving into his own place this weekend. He's excited to get into his own place and start decorating he says. He is staying at Rockwell, and will until he finds a job that he wants in Wichita.
Bob and I have pretty much finished up everything for the move to Wichita. We found a house and have gotten everything taken care of there. We are excited to get moved on the 30th and get situated. Alot to get done between now and then though.
Emily is doing well. She's enjoying being back in school. She's having a great time with her Ipod and her jukebox and spends alot of time searching you tube and such for new songs to add. She's super excited to get back to Wichita.
Jace is not doing so great. His stomach has been acting up alot lately. He's been super constipated to the point of convulsions, intense pain, and vomiting. He's meds are all on their highest level. So he's not been super happy. He is happy to be back in school though and is also super excited about the move to Wichita.
Benjamin has his moments. He's enjoying being back in school. Right now he's been eating a bit more, and I'm loving that! He eats a pretty good breakfast AND lunch! Always good when Ben is willing to eat something. He's been super mimicky and all that lately and that's been grating on my last nerve.
Ariana is doing well. She's such a little princess. She's starting to think about potty training so that is super exciting! She's a little piggy and loves to eat. She's talking lots and is doing great with her therapies.
I promise to get pictures of the kids up this weekend. It's so hard to get them all together for photos. I might just do a photo journey of our weekend! :)

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

My Little Princess

here is my little princess this morning. she was watching dora and not super interested in me taking a photo. normally she is such the camera ham!
she and i are spending our 1st morning together in over 6 weeks. so far it's going good, although we've only been alone for about 20 minutes! :) now to brave our 1st errands together.

Monday, January 5, 2009

100% free of Cables/Drains/Foreign Objects

I'm 5 weeks and 3 days post op from my 1st surgery and 2 weeks and 5 days post op from my emergency surgery.
I had a last minute surgeon's appt today. I have an infection on my right side where the drain was removed. He's got me on some super strong antibiotics. He also removed my last cable today. With the infection he didn't want to leave anything going into my body. So it's 100% me now. No drains, cables, or any of that! YIPPEE!! That part definitely feels good. The bad is the infection doesn't feel good, and I'm having alot of itching on the right side from the nerves trying to decide what they want to do, and I'm still having alot of weird random nerve sensations on the rest of my incision. Also still alot of muscle cramping. I'm sleeping a bit better. 3 pillows behind me and 1 under my right leg! I'm slowly but surely getting rid of all the extra pillows! I'm driving, best with cruise, but still driving. I have 1 small pillow behind me while driving!
As of tomorrow morning I also get to officialy completely shower! For the 1st time in over 5 weeks water and soap can touch EVERY part of my body! YEAH! no more showering sideways with saran wrap! I'm super excited about that as well!
I will get pictures posted this week of the kids and all that, I promise.
Until then here are my newest updated photos, taken this morning, before cable removal!



Sunday, January 4, 2009

home

just wanted to update that we made it home.

Headed to Iowa

We will be leaving in a few to head back to Iowa. It's been an amazing weekend! We are so excited about all of the things we've accomplished this weekend and the leads that we've worked thru. We will have more info over the next week or so!
The weather is apparently not great in Iowa, high winds and ice. Fun fun! We are leaving out super early to be able to stop more and drive slower!
we will be back in a few weeks! WOW! i know the time will go fast!

Friday, January 2, 2009

In Wichita

We are in Wichita. We left Iowa around 6pm wednesday night and drove into KC area. We got into Wichita, Thursday around 10am. We are having a great time! staying with friends and spending alot of time getting together with everyone.
today bob and i snuck away for a bit and went to the river walk and just walked and talked. it's been nice.
tonight it's off to a girls night, and lots of fun tomorrow. we will be leaving on sunday.
there is a possible job in the works, that we won't know more about until next week but we will update as we know.
sorry it's so short, but we are so darned busy!
call my cell for anyone who needs me!