Monday, December 22, 2008

Aliza singing & counting

I just wanted to share some video of Aliza singing and counting. You can hit the pause button on the music player at the bottom of this page to turn off the music so you can hear her.



Saturday, December 20, 2008

Snow, Snow, Snow

I love snow! It's crazy to think that I'm in WA right now. This is actually my first winter here that I remember snow sticking to the ground for more than a couple of days. It's sooo beautiful! Right now, I kind of feel like I'm in MI. Of course, it's not as cold as there but I love looking out my window and seeing nothing but white. Granted, it causes life to shut down around here, it's still worth it to me especially around Christmas.


About a week after our 1st snow and it's still falling! Yay!


We enjoyed the snow for the first couple of days, then we all started getting sick. Yes again. But nothing major. Just scratchy throats, coughing, and runny noses. But enough to want to look at the snow rather than play in it.



Ryan and his nurse, Becky, walking in the snow around the 3rd day


Ryan's nurses have had some trouble getting to work so we've had a couple of days alone. It can get tough trying to keep up with his daily schedule while taking care of normal things with Aliza and still helping Patrick recover. But it's also a nice break too having the house to ourselves.

Patrick is feeling better. He now has a hard cast on for another 4 weeks. That's not fun as some of you may know. As things are healing up inside, his incisions are getting pretty itchy. I have to warn him constantly to not think about sticking a hanger down in there. (He kept doing that his first surgery)

Anyways, Aliza and I made her first snowman the very first day of this weeklong snow storm. There was hardly any snow yet so it's VERY SMALL but cute. I didn't want to take the chance of the snow disappearing without her having that experience. Little did I know that the meteorologists would have it right and that the snow would actually stay this time and keep coming. Unfortunately for the snowman, we didn't have any buttons or carrots. Patrick gave us candy to accessorize. Aliza kept eating his buttons. The snowman's nose started "bleeding" when the sun hit because it was some kind of red candy coating. It was funny! I had a picture of that but it was on my cell phone, which unfortunately died from falling in water. I did catch a couple of pictures before the nose bleed.


Aliza's 1st snowman after the first snowfall

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Patrick's 3rd Ankle Surgery

Well surgery day finally arrived on Dec 4 after being postponed twice. Not that I was looking forward to it but I knew it was going to happen so I was glad it happened after Thanksgiving but weeks before Christmas. Patrick won't be weightbearing for a while but he'll at least be out of the initial pain by Christmas.

So far so good. He's in pain obviously but thankfully no infection or complications. We're praying for quick recovery and that it would be successful this time around so he can be active again and run, play hockey, play drums, etc.

They sent him home with an ice machine called GameReady. It's his second time using it and it is definitely a lifesaver! Unfortunately, we've had some trouble with this one getting his cast wet so they're replacing it tomorrow. Ice packs can't even compare to how this machine helps him deal with the pain. I love technology!

While we were waiting in the surgery waiting room, Aliza felt extremely hot. I walked her down to the pediatric clinic to check her temp and it was 103. When we brought Patrick home, I found out Ryan was running a 101 temp with an ear infection, my nurse was calling out sick, and Aliza's fever followed with stomach bug stuff. I almost freaked out wondering how I was going to manage 3 sick people but God gave me peace and reminded me He was there to help and strengthen me. I had to just focus on one day at a time and lean on Him. It has definitely worked. I praise him after we finish a day. So far we've made it 2 days and the 3rd day is going well. Thanks for all your prayers!!


Morning of surgery waiting to be called back



Still goofy--ready to be taken back


Saying 'see ya later, daddy'

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the evening with Uncle Paul, the Roberts family & the Kauffmans. The food was wonderful and filling. Best of all, Patrick's surgery that was scheduled the week before Thanksgiving was postponed to Dec 4. He wasn't too happy because he wanted to get it over with. But I was glad to have him painless during Thanksgiving. We also already picked out our tree so the day after Thanksgiving, we just walked straight to it and cut it down.


cutting our tree



Taking our tree home


Our tree


Black Friday was such a great day for me. I felt so productive. If only we could always go shopping and run errands before the kids woke up. Although I had a cold and was exhausted after hosting Thanksgiving dinner, I met up with Heidi at 5 am. We managed to cross things off our list from Toysrus, JcPenney, Express & Fred Meyer. I actually loved it! Unfortunately, I only had 3 hours (a positive thing for our bank account) since I had to be back by 8:30 to leave for Ryan's weekly therapy. I was so tempted to go back out and face the crowd but that would've been selfish of me. We were supposed to be spending the afternoon decorating. So I let it go and decided I have a whole year to plan my Black Friday 2009 outing.

This weekend Patrick also took me on a movie date to see Twilight. It was totally out of love for me that he went because it is not something he would ever want to see. Thanks honey! I'm not into vampires at all but I am a romantic and I really enjoyed the series. I was just told about these books the month before and read all four books in about a week. It wasn't the best quality movie since it had a low budget but I still enjoyed it.