Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Broken arm update!

We are having internet issues so my posting has slowed a bit. Our desktop (which has all my pictures on it) will not connect to the internet, but Bob's laptop does with no problem. I don't get it. Sometimes it will bring up the homepage, but no other websites. Anyways...
Ezra colored this while we waited at one of our appointments.

We had a follow up appointment one week after the break. When we got to the orthopedists office they sent us down to radiology for more x-rays. After reviewing the x-rays they told me that Ezra's bone had dropped a little, but it was still totally at an acceptable angle so they wanted us to come back next week. They said that if those x-rays looked fine then we would be good to go until the 4-5 week post break range, when they would take his cast off.
These x-rays are from the day of the break immediately after they put on the cast.
 Two weeks post break we came back, but this time with Bob. We were supposed to be quick and then drop Bob off at school and then I would head to my presidency meeting. After all the trip was pretty quick last time. Once again we were sent down for x-rays, and once again we were told that his bone had dropped. It had gone from a 18 degree angle to a 23 degree angle in a week. They said that they could accept a 30 degree angle in a child his age, but that we would need to come back again next week to make sure that it didn't keep dropping. They also wanted to replace his cast, because it was loose around the top and clearly loose on the x-rays. So what took a half hour the previous visit took over two hours this time. Needless to say Bob got to school much later than he hoped and I missed the first hour of my meeting.

These x-rays are from the 1 week follow-up.
You can see a slight angulation at the end of the bone in the one below.
I wish I had more x-rays, but this is all they gave me.
I was tempted to head straight to radiology for the start of our third visit, but when I checked in at orthopedics they said that the doctor had ordered x-rays with the cast off, so we were to go to the cast room and have this cast cut off. They wrapped Ezra's arm with an ace bandage and half the cast and sent us down to x-ray. This time they said that the bone did not drop any further and that we should be good to not come back for another 4-5 weeks. While Ezra's cast was off so the doctor could look at his arm she was telling me how it would take him about a week to regain full range of motion in his elbow after he got the cast off. He then completely straightened his arm, much to the doctors surprise. This time when they put the cast back on they just did it with Velcro strips, so we can take it off. He can have it off for bath time and bed time. After about 3 weeks with this cast we could start to wean him off of it, and let him go longer without it. We are now about 2 1/2 weeks into that and I let Ezra have it off more than I probably should. I just keep forgetting to put it back on in the morning. He doesn't really seem to mind if it is off or on though, which is nice. I'm glad I'm not fighting him.  It has been nice to have a break from all the doctors visits, and probably good for him to get a break from all the x-rays.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The day after the break.

Chronologically speaking this post should have come before The Big E, but who really cares right? We were supposed to go with our friends to the zoo the morning after Ezra broke his arm, and since I thought he would need some distraction we decided to still go. We had a good time, and Ezra is enjoying the animals more and more every time we go.

This new baby zebra was less than two weeks old.

 This may not be the best zoo, but the lion (hard to see thanks to the reflection)
has roared every time we have been there.




The grossest part of the day came in the gorilla house. There was a gorilla fairly close to the window laying on it's back being silly so we stopped to watch and get pictures. Before we left another gorilla came up to the window and stuck a piece of poop in its mouth. As if that wasn't gross enough he started smearing it all over the windows with his tongue. Ezra (who wasn't too interested in the gorillas before) was fascinated and the gorilla even moved over right in front of him to do it all over again. He and a couple other kids even tried to touch it. Luckily it was on the other side of the glass. It's like the other mom there said "now we know what he thinks of us!"





We spent the rest of the day doing things that Ezra could do with one arm, like him handing me all his animals to set up one at a time and singing with his microphone. All in all I would say it was a pretty good first day with a cast.


Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Big E

The Big E is a like a state fair/expo for all of New England held in Springfield, MA which runs for about a month. Bob and Henry heard a lot about it while on their externship, so we hit it up our last week there. All I had mostly heard about was the crazy food they have there like hamburgers where the bun is a glazed donut, deep fried jelly beans, deep fried butter balls, deep fried oreos, deep fried mushrooms (which we sampled), deep fried beer, I think you get the picture. Basically anything that you could think of-deep fried. But the one thing that really drew me in were the giant cream puffs. I LOVE cream puffs, so I couldn't miss the opportunity. Also our doctor told us they had a lot of animals for Ezra to see. It was pouring down rain, which doesn't go well with a new cast, but we still had a good time.


 Every time I see Clydesdales I can't get over how big and stocky they are.

 He wasn't too into riding a cow!

 It was sad the number of dead chicks in this hatchery. Luckily Ezra was too young to notice.






 It's hard to get a good picture when you are taking it in the rain, but this is on the Ferris Wheel.

 Bob and I each got our own. It was so worth every penny!

Even with sharing with Ezra I couldn't finish it. I sure wish I had one right now though.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

How much do you love your doctor?

Probably not as much as we love ours! People think I am crazy when I tell them about this, but what can I say? We had the BEST DOCTOR EVER! Our family doctor recently quit her job because the two hour commute each way was killing her, and she really just wanted to be a small town doctor. She said that if we were ever out her way that we should stop in and see her. When I informed her that we would be living in Holyoke (only about 30 minutes away from her) for part of the week, she invited us over for dinner. She lives in a beautiful small town (now I totally understand why I couldn't convince her to move to Gridley) and we had a great time. The weather was nice so we ate a delicious meal outside, except for Ezra who was too in love with her chickens, tomatoes directly off the vine, and wide open spaces to settle down for something as boring as eating. Her girls were so great with Ezra and excited to see his cast. Bob and I felt like we just unloaded all of our recent medical drama on her, but we did enjoy getting to know her more personally too. It was so nice to get to see her again, and I think she was close to tears when we left. I know she enjoyed our visit as much as we did.  We will definitely be going back to see her before we move!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Comfort

Being in Utah without Bob was hard. My family was really great, but it was hard to basically be Ezra's sole emotional support. I gained a whole new appreciation for single parents, and I even had a lot of help. So when Bob called to break the news that he had developed a new medical condition that could turn out really bad (although the chances are super low) and that it would require us putting off having kids for a little while, I was feeling really weighed down by everything. It was nice to have family around to talk about it with, but really hard to not have Bob there to comfort me.

When fast Sunday rolled around I was really seeking for some answers. I was actually a little surprised that they came as quickly as the opening hymn. We sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and the second verse contained my much needed answer. "He lives to calm my troubled heart. He lives all blessing to impart." I may not know exactly how things are going to turn out, but I know that I can trust in Jesus Christ and that through his Atonement he is able to comfort me through my trials. As hard as it was for me to accept the fact that more kids would have to wait, I know that He does indeed live "all blessings to impart" and that I will be blessed with more children. I am sure that in a couple of years from now, this will seem like such a small thing, but I am truly grateful for the knowledge that my Heavenly Father knows me personally. That He cares about what is important to me now, and that He will help me through anything. I am so grateful for the Gospel and the knowledge and comfort that it brings into my life. I am also grateful for my sweet and loving brother who fasted for me and Bob even though I had not asked him to, I know that it helped me find the answers I needed. Thank You!

Friday, October 8, 2010

While the Wife's Away

Life in Holyoke, MA is not very exciting, so you have to jump on those rare opportunities to have some fun when they present themselves (more posts in store!).  A couple of weekends after E&E went to Utah there was an air show in the nearby town of Westfield.  I convinced my classmate/roommate Henry to go with me so we checked it out.

Henry and I chilling with one of the sponsors.

The traffic there was really bad.  A 20 minute drive ended up taking 2 hours, but we caught some of the entertainment as we got close.

If you click to zoom in to get a better view of the jet you may also
notice the line of traffic going around the curve in the road.

Here I am with various aircraft:






Another one of the sponsors was Jeep.  They had a road course and an off-road course that you could test drive various Jeep brand vehicles on.  


I've always been a fan of the Cherokee so I drove it on both courses.  They had to tell me to slow down a couple of times on the off road track.  Maybe it wasn't the best place to live my dream to be a stunt car driver.

They didn't let me drive this though. 

Or this jet powered bus that went over 300 mph!

Due to our fears of exiting traffic we bailed before the Air Force Thunder Birds took flight but all in all it was a good time.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Utah- Weeks 3-5

Since I am so far behind in my blogging this will be a super condensed version, okay not really. Just a lot of pictures and less words. Enjoy!
Grandpa took a week off and Ezra loved helping him disc up the yard.

 Keian slept over a lot that week and Ezra followed him everywhere.

 Grandpa found a baby Tarantula. Ezra was obsessed, 
as he is with most things that move of their own accord.

 We went swimming at Rick and MaryAnn's. They had these little suits that we put on to be funny.
Ezra actually loved his and I didn't mind the extra sun protection, so he wore it the whole time.

 We call this the magic pool because Ezra loves to swim in it and has never cried in it.
He even went down the water slide by himself. That is huge for a boy who is unsure about slides.

 Modeling Keian's hat while playing.

 It was way past his bed time, but he entertained us with a few dances so we let it slide.

Uncle Andy took care of the bed time story that night!
He woke up the next morning saying "Andy, book. Andy, book"

 This enormous bonk actually happened in week 2, but I forgot to post it.
He fell down the porch steps that are made of brick.

 More Jett time!

 They played so well together. It only took them a couple of weeks to figure it out.

 Ezra also loved playing with baby Zane!

 We went to the lake on Labor Day weekend. 
Ezra stole Keian's hat and I again did not mind the extra sun protection.

 I actually enjoyed the red sandy beach, but stuck to the shade.

 Enjoying a story with Lily, Jett and Jonas.

 Don't smell your cake while Tony is around!

Brandon found a toad one night. I'm sure you can guess that the boys enjoyed him.

They ended the night with a little Ring Around the Rosies

I got lazier and lazier with the photo taking, we did more things and had a really great time! I especially enjoyed all the family time. As fun as it was we were SO GLAD to be back with DADDY!