Ok, so it's been a little busy around here this summer! How about an update on each of us:
Jamie's big news is that he's been accepted to the Senior NCO academy! There are only 150 seats available to the whole Air Force, so it's a really big deal that he got accepted. We've heard that it's not unusual to apply more than once, and he got in on his first try, so that's even better! He leaves in March for 7 weeks, I'm not looking forward to that part, but it'll be great for his career! His other big news is that he's finished associates degree#3! He now holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Management/Human Resources Management and Associate Degrees in Aviation Operations, Aviation Management and the newest-Information Systems Technology . He's also been playing softball for our church's team- they suck pretty bad, but he's had fun and made some friends.
Andy spent a week of his summer vacation at Camp Graham in Western Ohio! He had a blast and they did the most fun things! He went canoeing down the Little Miami River, searched for fossils in a creek, played Capture the Flag, swam, learned archery- all the typical camp things! He's already looking forward to next year. It was really hard to leave him- I knew he'd be fine, but it was the first time ever I didn't know what he was doing and who he was with- very hard for a momma! Midget-league football should be starting soon, so he's excited about that, and he'll be starting 5th grade in September.
Alec spent his summer home with me, he's not old enough to go to Camp Graham till next year. He had fun with the Library's summer reading program and has been working on perfecting his artwork! He started soccer last week and is having a lot of fun with that. He'll be in 3rd grade this year.
Kate is her usual wild-child self! She's been pestering her brothers, kissing up to her daddy and has been attached to my side all summer! We haven't done much away from home this year, most of our summer has been spent outside in the yard. She's had a blast catching lightning bugs and roly polys, there are a whole lot of bugs she's afraid of! She's finally sleeping in her OWN ROOM!!!! Well, unless it's storming, then all bets are off! She starts preschool 5 mornings a week this fall- same room where she has Sunday School, but I know she'll throw a fit every morning, I'm NOT looking forward to that!
I haven't done much this summer, other than keep the kids from killing each other! I took a required STNA class (State Trained Nurse Aid) for 2 weeks and a 2-night CPR class, both in preparation for starting nursing clinicals this fall. It's been an expensive summer for us because of my school- the STNA class was $550, the state boards are $100, the CPR class was $50, my school uniform is $200+, I know it'll be worth it in the end, but it's been crazy what all we've had to pay for. There's still a chance I'll make it into RN clinicals, they have about 8 seats open still and I'm about 5th on the list, so I'm crossing my fingers for that. If I don't make RN, I'm scheduled to start LPN clinicals, so it wont be too big of a deal, I'd really like to get it over with now, though.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Maybe next time I'll just get it at Kroger!
So I've been nursing a batch of sourdough starter for 2 weeks, finally drug out the bread machine and attempted my first loaf! Got all the ingredients added, started the machine, everything looks great! Then when it was done, it beeped like it's supposed to, I peep inside the little window and it's completely sunken in! I thought maybe it needed baked a little longer than I'd set the machine for, so I left it in for a few more minutes. After 15 minutes of beeping, I gave up and tried pushing the button marked "Start/Stop" to turn the whole oven off. Apparently the button doesn't turn it off, but if you hold it down like I did, it'll start mixing again! So I mixed the middle of the bread completely out, hollowed the whole loaf out! It smelled great and tasted ok, a little bland... I'll try again, I worked too hard on the starter to give up!
Surgery
So Kate's hernia surgery is over! It went really well, she was fussing the next morning because we wouldn't let her rider her new bike, I'm taking that as a sign that she's healing nicely!
Lets see... We got to the hospital at 11am and got her changed into a HUGE gown, HUGE pants and HUGE socks- just because she's 4 doesn't mean she's as big as most 4-year-olds! Then we were off to play in the waiting room.
The first nurse comes to get us to do vitals. Kate decides right off that she's not having it. First up was her weight- no deal. She throws a screaming fit, wraps her arms and legs around J's body and won't let go! The ended up weighing both of them, then I took her and they weighed J by himself. She's a whopping 29lbs! Then off to an exam room to get her blood pressure (went slightly better, she's used to playing with my BP cuff) and her pulse. I think she thought they were going to kill her at this point, she absolutely screamed nonstop the whole time! I even put the meter on my own finger to show her it wouldn't hurt and she didn't care. We ended up holding her down- J had her arms, I had one leg and the nurse had the other- they put a teensy bandaid-type meter on her tiny toe and put the big sock back on- she actually kicked the nurse a few times!
So after that fiesta, we went back to the waiting room where there was a standard black Poodle surrounded by 100 little kids in ginormous gowns! Kate liked looking at it, but she wasn't willing to actually touch it! Then a lady from Family Services came out with a big box of stuff to show Kate: surgical masks, the masks K'd wear to get the anesthetic, stuff like that. She let K try on the masks and put them on us, then she took her down the hallway to get hats for us. They were watching to see how she'd do without us and letting her get used to the attire the surgeon and staff would be wearing in the OR. This has got to be the best idea, she was absolutely fine after this!
After another short wait we met with an anesthesiologist, answered the same questions as the 1st nurse, K picked out her "flavor" (raspberry), then we waited/played again.
Finally we went back to meet with the surgeon and the main anesthesiologist. Another round of the same questions (no, she's still not allergic to anything but Augmentin, no new loose teeth since they asked 5 minutes ago...) and the surgeon asked her to lay down so he could mark her hernias. She hopped up on the table, we showed him the hernias and when he went to mark them she freaked out and jumped about 50 feet! We had to reassure her he was only holding a pen, she though for sure he was going to "shot" her!
When he left his nurse came in to take K. I thought for sure she'd freak out again, or at least cry, but no- she took the nurse's hand and before they turned the corner K was laughing about something!
We were in the waiting room long enough for me to read 2 magazines when Dr Pittinger came in. Her surgery took half an hour (he'd originally said it could take up to an hour and a half) and she was already in recovery! Everything went very well, they fixed the hernias, bandaged her up and she was being woken up. After a few minutes we got to go back and see her! She was laying on her side facing away from us and the nurse with her said she'd already been talking about having a birthday that weekend and telling her about her party at Chuck E Cheese! Of course the second she heard our voices she started crying, but the nurse said that that's normal. She wanted to be held, so J got her and rocked her to sleep. We moved to the 2nd recovery room shortly after this and J and I watched Spongebob while she slept. She woke and asked to lay in the bed, and when we moved her she said she was sick. I got an emesis basin under her chin just in time for her to burp loud enough to shake the walls, then she was fine! She slept for about half an hour more, then we got her discharge info, they took out her IV and we got her dressed. She was very excited to ride in a wagon from the recovery room to the car!
She slept most of the way home, and dozed on and off the rest of the evening. She had Motrin for pain, didn't seem to be in enough to get her prescription filled, which was great! The next morning is when she cried because we wouldn't let her ride her bike!
Lets see... We got to the hospital at 11am and got her changed into a HUGE gown, HUGE pants and HUGE socks- just because she's 4 doesn't mean she's as big as most 4-year-olds! Then we were off to play in the waiting room.
The first nurse comes to get us to do vitals. Kate decides right off that she's not having it. First up was her weight- no deal. She throws a screaming fit, wraps her arms and legs around J's body and won't let go! The ended up weighing both of them, then I took her and they weighed J by himself. She's a whopping 29lbs! Then off to an exam room to get her blood pressure (went slightly better, she's used to playing with my BP cuff) and her pulse. I think she thought they were going to kill her at this point, she absolutely screamed nonstop the whole time! I even put the meter on my own finger to show her it wouldn't hurt and she didn't care. We ended up holding her down- J had her arms, I had one leg and the nurse had the other- they put a teensy bandaid-type meter on her tiny toe and put the big sock back on- she actually kicked the nurse a few times!
So after that fiesta, we went back to the waiting room where there was a standard black Poodle surrounded by 100 little kids in ginormous gowns! Kate liked looking at it, but she wasn't willing to actually touch it! Then a lady from Family Services came out with a big box of stuff to show Kate: surgical masks, the masks K'd wear to get the anesthetic, stuff like that. She let K try on the masks and put them on us, then she took her down the hallway to get hats for us. They were watching to see how she'd do without us and letting her get used to the attire the surgeon and staff would be wearing in the OR. This has got to be the best idea, she was absolutely fine after this!
After another short wait we met with an anesthesiologist, answered the same questions as the 1st nurse, K picked out her "flavor" (raspberry), then we waited/played again.
Finally we went back to meet with the surgeon and the main anesthesiologist. Another round of the same questions (no, she's still not allergic to anything but Augmentin, no new loose teeth since they asked 5 minutes ago...) and the surgeon asked her to lay down so he could mark her hernias. She hopped up on the table, we showed him the hernias and when he went to mark them she freaked out and jumped about 50 feet! We had to reassure her he was only holding a pen, she though for sure he was going to "shot" her!
When he left his nurse came in to take K. I thought for sure she'd freak out again, or at least cry, but no- she took the nurse's hand and before they turned the corner K was laughing about something!
We were in the waiting room long enough for me to read 2 magazines when Dr Pittinger came in. Her surgery took half an hour (he'd originally said it could take up to an hour and a half) and she was already in recovery! Everything went very well, they fixed the hernias, bandaged her up and she was being woken up. After a few minutes we got to go back and see her! She was laying on her side facing away from us and the nurse with her said she'd already been talking about having a birthday that weekend and telling her about her party at Chuck E Cheese! Of course the second she heard our voices she started crying, but the nurse said that that's normal. She wanted to be held, so J got her and rocked her to sleep. We moved to the 2nd recovery room shortly after this and J and I watched Spongebob while she slept. She woke and asked to lay in the bed, and when we moved her she said she was sick. I got an emesis basin under her chin just in time for her to burp loud enough to shake the walls, then she was fine! She slept for about half an hour more, then we got her discharge info, they took out her IV and we got her dressed. She was very excited to ride in a wagon from the recovery room to the car!
She slept most of the way home, and dozed on and off the rest of the evening. She had Motrin for pain, didn't seem to be in enough to get her prescription filled, which was great! The next morning is when she cried because we wouldn't let her ride her bike!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Happy Birthday, Kate!
So somehow the years have flown by and my baby girl is now a grown-up 4 year old! I don't know how I didn't realize it was going by so fast!
We had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese (chaotic, but at least the massive mess wasn't at MY house!) and they all had lots of fun! There were 13 kids in all, plus moms and a few dads. We had a blast! Kate even let us get her next to Chuck E! She's been terrified of him for years, but when she saw her girlfriends hugging him, she had to do it, too!
Jamie and I got her a big-girl bike! She got it first thing this morning, it was a little too big to wrap and take to the party! She was SO excited, she hurried and got dressed and started asking to go on a bike ride. She rode circles through the house- den, kitchen, hallway, dining room- and really got the hang of it pretty quickly!
I'm going to go play with the kids now, turns out they grow up fast whether you pay attention or not, and I don't want to miss any of it!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
So I found out what to expect next!
So this was drill weekend, and we always have J's troops over for dinner and whatever. Kate has totally fallen head-over-heels in love with 2 of the guys, Brandon and Chris. Last night, everyone was starting to leave and before too long it was Brandon, Chris and Jemen (another of J's troops, who Kate had been playing tea party with all evening). When they were the only ones left, Kate turns to Jemen and says, "You can go now, I want to spend time with my boys." What on earth will she be doing/saying when she's 16??
The weather has been much better (until this weekend, but that's another post...) and Kate and I have enjoyed watching the kids play on the school playground. I hear she and Alec yelling across the backyard every day, and sometimes I sneak and take pictures! Can you see him?
The weather has been much better (until this weekend, but that's another post...) and Kate and I have enjoyed watching the kids play on the school playground. I hear she and Alec yelling across the backyard every day, and sometimes I sneak and take pictures! Can you see him?
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