Courtney's Shirt

[CORRECTION: Julie made the shirt for Courtney and Brooke has a matching one. Sorry about that Julie.]

When we went up to Lisa and Mike's house they gave Courtney a shirt that Aunt Julie had sent out for her. And I can't get her to take it off!! ;) I guess you can say that she loves her new shirt. Cute girl.

The Dumb Thing is OFF!!!

We took off my splint this morning and it was such an exciting experience!!! It was really itchy yesterday and I was going nuts. I didn't sleep very well last night because it has been aching too. So this morning, bright and early, Bryan became my nurse and unwrapped my miles of gauze and bandages.

The part of my foot that was below my splint (near my toes) was pretty swollen but my foot wasn't too bad. It's all right because I need to lotion, but the itching has gotten a lot better. The incision looks a lot different than I thought it would...it's a lot bigger than I anticipated, but it doesn't look too bad. I was a bit light headed and nauseous after we got everything taken off but I feel fine now. You can still see the doctor's signature on my right leg and the "YES" they had me write on the foot they were operating on.

I still can't put any weight on my foot but it's so nice not to have a huge, heavy splint on my leg/foot anymore!!

WARNING: The bottom picture is kind of gross.
Just starting:

First layer off:

The foot wrap:

The wrap over the incision:

The incision (GROSS!):

Pack Meeting

Ethan had Pack Meeting last night. I didn't get to go because of my foot but I got the run-down on what they did when they all got home.

Ethan had earned a couple of Arrows so he was awarded those at the beginning. Then the fun began. Bryan says that a Pack Leader is kind of like a grandparent...they can give the kids anything but they don't have to deal with them afterward. Yes, the boys all got marshmallow guns! They got to play games with them and have fun. Ethan thought it was the best thing and was so excited to come home and show me how well he can shoot his marshmallows.

We have some fun leaders in our ward and I appreciate all the work they go to for my son.

Lydia's Princess Party

Last Monday Courtney was invited to a Princess Party. They had a royal manicure, royal pedicure and a royal up-do. She had a great time and came home looking very "princessy."

Here's how she came back to us:

Michelle's Surgery

Last Thursday, after school, we loaded in the van and drove to Provo to stay with Lisa and Mike so we would be closer to the Surgical Center for my foot surgery. About 18 years ago, more or less, I was goofing off with a friend and stepped off a curb funny. I hurt my foot but the doctor kept telling me that it was just sprained. It has hurt every since but I couldn't find anyone who would believe that anything was wrong. Finally, a doctor in St. George did an MRI on the foot and found a fracture. He did a few cortisone shots (wonderful things!) which gave me some relief but nothing permanent. Finally I went to a specialist in Provo who did a CT scan and found a cyst, bone spur and "junk" in my joint that needed to be taken out. So we scheduled surgery.

Lisa watched the kids while Bryan took me to the Surgical Center. I was there at 9:15 but didn't get into surgery until 11 a.m. They put me under general anesthesia, so I got to sleep, but then they did a nerve block in my calf which numbed my foot. It was supposed to wear off between 10-12 hours, but it lasted about 19 hours (lovely!). I woke up after 1 1/2 hours of surgery (it was supposed to be about 45 minutes but he found more "junk" than anticipated) absolutely FREEZING! The blood pressure cuff on my right arm was driving me nuts and alarms kept going off. Bryan told me the alarm was because my heart rate was so low (40-45) and the nurse finally asked if that was normal for me and I told her it was, so she muted the alarm.

After what seemed like forever in the recovery room, I was able to get dressed to be discharged. Now, they told me to wear comfy, baggy clothes and I thought I had. But I didn't anticipate this huge splint that was all the way to my knee! I barely got my pants on. Bryan took me back to Lisa's where we got the kids, I changed into my pjs and then we were off.

I slept most of the way home, which Ethan watching me closely in the backseat. We had to take one pit stop at a rest area where Bryan ended up giving me a piggy back ride to the bathroom, but other than that it was non eventful.

I can take the splint off on Wednesday (yipee because it's heavy!) but I'm on crutches for 2-4 weeks. I have a post-op appointment in two weeks to have it checked. Hopefully this will take care of everything.

My orange foot:

My splint:

My splint and my left leg so you can see just how big it really is (I heard one nurse say something about "overkill" but I was out of it so I may have imagined it)! Just think how big it would have been if the surgery was on my leg!

Ethan and Courtney

I am sure Ethan is going to regret this someday but he asked me to post this photo. He was playing on his DSi the other day and Courtney decided that he needed to have his hair done. She ran in the bathroom, grabbed a bunch of flowers and started putting them in his hair. Isn't is usually the older sisters dressing up the little brother and not the little sister dressing up the big brother?!?! Anyway, he wanted it documents because he said it shows "how great a big brother I am because I let my little sister make me look ridiculous." He has a point!

Courtney's Dance

Here is Courtney's Pizazz routine (the part I got on tape before the battery in the camera died) from last night. She did awesome and had so much fun. She didn't have her glasses on because her eyelashes are too long and hit her lenses which bugs her. So she is allowed to perform without them. She gets to wear makeup for the performances too which she loves and Ethan hates. He says she looks "freaky" and "not like herself at all!" It gets washed off the second we get home.

Please ignore the psycho mom yelling in the background (it's just me!). She has had such a hard time getting the ring out in past performances that I was so excited when she got it.







Here she is after it was all over and we were watching the game.