Doug's Visit

I meant to get a picture of Doug while he was home, but the camera never came out. However, we all had a wonderful, relaxing weekend together. On Saturday, Doug took the boys to get a haircut, then we played Wii together almost the whole day and watched a movie together that night. We went to church today, then came home and relaxed. Put a Pot Roast in the crock pot, played board games, had an late lunch/early dinner then headed off to the airport around 3:45 pm. When we were pulling into the terminal Ethan asks "Are we going with you Dad?" So sweet, but it also made me sad. However, our practical son Jacob had quick response to his question. "No Ethan, how can we do that? We didn't pack any bags. We have to pack clothes if we're going on a trip, otherwise we wouldn't have anything to wear."

Fun with paints!

I'm starting my course with Sheffield School to become an Interior Deisgner and my first color project was working with primary colors (red, blue and yellow) to make secondary colors (green, orange and violet) and intermediate colors. I decided to make it into a color class for the kids. They learned what two primary colors create secondary colors and then how to create intermediate colors. We all had a lot of fun and the kids made some beautiful pictures.

Jacob's picture

Audrey's picture

Ethan's picture

My Ankle

Well, it's been a few weeks since I mentioned that there might be a problem with my ankle. I thought I had a stress fracture, but it looks like it's something a little worse than that. It's called Osteochondritis Dissecans (abbreviated OCD). It commonly occurs in children and teenagers, but I'm one of the lucky few that has it as an adult. Basically, OCD is a localized injury affecting the surface of the joint that involves a separation of a segment of cartilage and the underlying bone. There are four phases to this injury with phase 4 being the worst and luckly I'm still in phase 1. They are hopeful that I will not need surgery; however, there is a 50% chance that I will. Right now they have me in a boot for 8 weeks, possibly crutches for 2 weeks if the pain doesn't go away by Friday. If my condition doesn't worsen the recovery will probably take anywhere from three to six months. Although, if things do not improve the recovery could last as long as nine or twelve months. That means no running for me. Also the doctor said no biking, swimming or anything that puts additional pressure on the leg. For my cardio the only thing he suggested I could do are the bikes at the gym that use your arms instead of your legs. Now, that sounds like fun. Oh, and just incase you forgot, Doug's gone until the end of April. Perfect timing wouldn't you say? As military wives I think all of our responses are "Isn't it always that way."

Which kid did what?

I took the kids grocery shopping today and when we got home one kid carried in a bag per my request, then hung their jacket up, took their shoes off and said "brrr it's cold outside as they passed the open door", another kid helped me with all the groceries without any prompting, and the third one played in the snow until I said they needed to come in. Any guesses on which kid did what?

If you guessed Ethan, Jacob then Audrey you were right. Oh, how that situation reflected their personalities.

Doug Left Today

Doug got his car packed up this morning and is on the road heading down to Altus, OK.  He is flying back home on Friday for the 3-day weekend, but after that we're not sure how often he will make it home. The class is suppose to end the last week in April, then his Change of Command will be on Wednesday, May 4th.

Jacob's Doctor's Appointment

We met with Jacob's doctor on Thursday afternoon. We were seen two hours after the appointment time. This wasn't normal and thankfully all the kids did well being couped up in a small room for over an hour. When the doctor finally arrived we discussed what happen over the last three weeks. He was pretty upset with us for taking Jacob off his medicine and not talking to him about it first. However, it was clear through our conversation that he never planned on taking Jacob off the medicine and that was not OK with us, which is probably why we didn't consult him on whether he should continue with the medicine or not. He also said that he felt the results we got from taking Jacob off of gluten had no connection to his improvement with his IBD symptoms. We of course have a different opinion because of the improvement we saw that completely restored him back to normal health. However, we are not naive enough to think that his symptoms may not return. If they do we will try to find ways to fix his problem without the continued use of medicine. Time is the only indicator of what lies ahead and I believe another doctor that is more in line with our desires is also in our future.

Last Pictures for 2010

Gingerbread 5K Run 

December 4th

My 40th Birthday Surprise Party!!

 Me and Cammie

My long time friend from our days in Spokane, WA.

 Anne Marie and Me

One of my new home school friends. Our kids also have a lot of fun together.

 Dave and Sandi

Dave works with Doug, they live down the street from us and they've become our good friends.

Unfortunately, someone didn't do a very good job with taking pictures so these were pretty much all I had even though I had a lot of other good friends that were there.

Oh wait...actually there was this really good picture taken of Doug with his friends. Well, at least I have a really good picture of the boys! Maybe for his 40th I'll make sure I get a picture of me and the girls.

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

 

 

Christmas Eve at the Jones' House

 Jeremy, Jennifer, Jeremy's parents (Sue and Kenny) and baby Jacob

 Ethan, Jacob, Alex and Audrey

 Jen and Me

 Our house when we got home that night.

Christmas Morning

 

 

 

 You think she got enough dolls for Christmas? And what about that doll house?

 Star Wars and legos were the main theme for the boys' gifts!

We had so much fun on Christmas that we didn't get around to sledding until the next day.

 

 Keeley (our next door neighbor) and Audrey

 

Tuckered out after a big day of sledding!

Has it really been this long?

I think this is the longest amount of time that has gone by without posting something. I suppose that should tell you something about how life has been around here. Just in case you might have missed a thing or two here is a quick recap:

We spent Thanksgiving here. I made a ridiculously large amount of food for my family, Jeremy Jones, his two boys (Jennifer unfortunately had to work), and Roger. I've tailored my Thanksgiving dinner to the point that Doug feels like I've reached perfection. This was the second year in a row we had the Jones' over for Thanksgiving and they seem to enjoy the dishes also. There are a lot of recipes I love, but there are still one or two I would like to tweak or replace. The only mistake I made this year was making one pumpkin pie. The kids devoured most of it before the adults had a slice, so from now on I will definitely be making two. 

Jacob had his colonoscopy on November 29th to find out if he has Crohn's Disease or Colitis but the test was unconclusive. However, they feel confident it is one or the other. Instead of following their advice that no dietary changes were needed we listened to the advice of my brother and another friend and took him off of milk, gluten and corn. Doug was questioned by Jacob's doctor as to why we would do that. However, after two full weeks of being on a gluten-free diet he is back to normal. We found that milk is not an issue for him; however, Jacob and Ethan now prefer Almond milk over regular milk, especially the chocolate and vanilla flavor. My favorite is Hazelnut milk, but we are still in between cow milk and non-dairy milk. Although I am planning on making my own almond and hopefully hazelnut milk and if it works out well I won't need to buy any milk in the near future. With Jacob's bowel problems we previously took him off of dairy, but it was unsuccessful. Now we know why because it wasn't a dairy problem it was a gluten problem. Also, three days ago we took him off his medicine and amazingly it didn't change a thing. However, the one time he had a cookie with gluten and another time he had popcorn and both of them caused him to have diarrhea shortly thereafter. Amazing! We're very curious to hear what the doctor will say about everything when we see him next week.

On Friday December 3rd my younger sister Robyn had open heart surgery. It went amazingly well and she is doing great with her recovery. However, there have been a few set backs in the last couple weeks. There were three areas where the incision didn't close completely. She's had to pack the wounds to try and get them to heal from the inside out which was very concerning, but it looks like it is making a difference. I'm still so thankful that I was able to help her and her family out for a few days after she got out of the hospital. Doug was also a trooper and actually did school with the kids while I was gone. How's that for an amazing husband?

On Saturday, December 4th I turned 40! Yikes!!! Actually it wasn't all that bad. I ran my second 5K and did better than expected since I had just started back running a couple weeks prior. I am looking forward to doing more races in the future. In addition, a friend encouraged me to sign-up for a half marathon in April. However, it looks like those plans will be delayed. I'm pretty sure I have a tibia stress fracture by increasing my milage too quickly, which means I won't be running anytime soon.

My 40th Surprise Birthday Weekend!  Doug definitely pulled out all the stops this year for my birthday. He got my friend Cammie to fly in from Oklahoma the day before which was a complete surprise. I think I was in shock most of Friday. He also didn't do ANYTHING around the house to give it away, so the house was a complete mess when she arrived at my doorstep. There was actually rice still under Audrey's chair from our dinner two nights prior and groceries were still sitting on the counter from grocery shopping the day before, so you can only imagine where I was with cleaning. Anyone who knows me well knows this was challenging for me to get past. I know Cammie didn't care, but I like knowing that when people come into my home they won't be afraid to use the bathroom or worry that their arm will get sticky because they touched my table, but its not always possible to keep the house up to that standard when no visitors are staying with us. Somehow Doug didn't think it would be a big deal and he was confident I would get over it.  He was right about that because what he planned for Saturday made Friday look like a distant memory. On Saturday I had my 5K and then Doug got us a massage at The Four Seasons Hotel. It was one of the most incredible spa experiences I've had. Both Cammie and I were very grateful and loved every minute of it. Then, that night he pulled off a surprise party for me with all my friends. I really don't know how he did it. There were a few times when I could tell something was afoot, but I never pieced it all together. So, I was very surprised, very happy and very touched by all that he had done for me that weekend.

Christmas was nice. We went over to the Jones' on Christmas Eve and had an amazing time with Jeremy, Jennifer and Jeremy's parents. Jeremy's mom made an amazing Prime Rib dinner for us and Jeremy and Jennifer had the funnest game for the kids to play. We also got snow that day and more snow that night so we had a beautiful white Christmas. Christmas day was just us with the kids. Jacob and I stayed in our pj's the whole day, but the rest of them decided to get dressed. The kids loved all their toys and we all enjoyed a relaxing day as a family. We miss being with our extended family on the holidays, but we definitely don't miss traveling.

Well I guess that is all the highlights ending our 2010! We are looking forward to 2011 and finding out what twists and turns it will bring.

P.S. More pictures will follow. I've been delaying this post so I could attach pictures, but we are still having problems.