What's happening in our world...

I decided to use by blog again as a way to express feelings. My thoughts on this post hopefully aren't as depressing as the last time I decided to vent, but some thoughts I will admit are sad for me.
I have been thinking a lot about my dad the past few days, and have really been missing him. I miss that he is not here for me to ask random questions to, or to help me feel better when I am feeling down. I am sad that we aren't able to share the happy and exciting experiences we are having with him. I am sad he hasn't been able to see Ellison at all, and has missed out on her entire life here on earth and that he missed Ryan's wedding. It is sad to think that he will never know mine or Ryan's and some of Brad's children.
Kam has told me multiple times that Heavenly Father knew that my dad could help us more on the other side than he could here, and irionically enough, soon after he passed, I started having all my issues. I know he is around and is aware of everything that is going on with us, but it's not the same as having him physically here. On the upside, he lived a great life, all his children look up to his example and have tried to model their lives in the way he lived his.
I will say that one of my sweetest memories of him was actually the last time I saw him. Kam and I were in the midst of moving to Mississippi and I really wanted my folks to come along, however knew they would never go for long hours in a car, driving across country. That's when I had a great idea...dangle the idea of Nauvoo in front of him to entice him. I knew I could talk my dad into more so than my mom, and he could talk her into the idea. So, I presented the idea to him, and he bit! He and my mom flew out and we met them in Nauvoo. We spent 2 happy days in the small town with them. I was anxious to get to Mississippi so we could meet the moving truck and get the drive over with, and my dad kept trying to talk us into staying another night. I wish now I would have. Right before Kam and I took off to get to Mississippi, I said goodbye to my parents and thought to myself, "what if this is the last time I see them?" I quickly dismissed the thought, and then said to myself, "don't be so silly, you will see them at Christmas." I hugged my parents and then watched them walk into the Nauvoo temple to do a session. That is the last memory I have. I am greatful that the last thing I saw my dad do was participate in a temple session.
I have been thinking a lot about a surgery that may or may not happen. Whenever I over do it (exercise, work, whatever), my leg will start to hurt. Well I just so happens that I have overdone it, and my leg is hurting. I am so over this and am really needing a reprieve. Would you guys think I am crazy to look forward to surgery? Well I do, if it means that pain is alleviated! I am going to try to make an appointment with the surgeon in September and hopefully he will tell me he can slice and get this thing taken care of!
On happier thoughts, I have been thinking a lot about Young Women. I feel that if I just get in there and love the girls, everything will fall into place. I am however, concerned about all the activites, the amount of time it takes and all the other little details. I have such awesome counselors, so I know that we will be successful, I guess it's just this whole getting used to the change in calling thing. I will say this, I already love the girls, and am constantly thinking of ways to show them we care about them, to help them make good choices. We are having a super Saturday on August 9th that I am looking forward to taking the girls to.
I have been thinking about Ellison's first birthday. It's coming so soon and I can't believe my little 5 week early, 5 lbs. 11 oz baby is almost a year old! I know I still have a month and a half, but I have been trying to figure out exactly how to celebrate the occasion, when, etc and I think I have a good bit of it figured out and to be explained in later posts. I am going for a jungle theme (sort of like her unfinished bedroom!), and I will be great!
Weight loss is also something that is constantly on my mind. I have sort of been keeping a food journal, and was on a really good exercise program, but am taking a small break while my leg hurts. I am only about 5-7 lbs away from pre-pregnancy weight, however I want to loose an additional 7 lbs off of that, so I am still around 12-14 lbs from my goal. I lose about a pound a week, but then when I have to stop because of my leg, it seems (of course) to creap back on. Anyhow, still trying to figure that one out!
The last thought I have is that I am excited for our upcoming t rip to D.C. to visit Kam's parents and hopefully see my cousin Shelli and her little fam. I am excited to see all the landmarks and visit some great museums. I know I am a total nerd, but I love historic, and/or educational landmarks, and D.C. is chuck full of them! I am psyched to take it all in!

The past few days Ellison has not been acting like her normal self. She has been clingy, a little fussy and was running a fever. We chalked it up to her teething because she is getting her second bottom too as well. This continued for about 4 days, we would give her Tylenol, the fever would go down, the Tylenol would wear off, and the fever would go right back up. So, I decided to call the doctor and try to get Ellison in on Saturday.
We get to the doctors office, he looks in her ears, and says she has the starts of an ear infection. So, we are dealing with our first ear infection. The doctor gave her an antibiotic which we give her two times a day, which leads into a funny story.
On Sunday Ellie was crawling around the front room, I was sitting on the couch working on some Young Women stuff and Kam was walking around. Kam noticed some brown spots on the carpet, and started freaking out! In a frantic tone I heard "I think that's poop, I think that's poop," so I look over, and sure enough, there is poop on the carpet, Ellison's legs, her dress, everywhere! So Kam was left to clean the carpet and I stripped Ellison down, cleaned her up and then put her in the tub. Poor Ellison has been stricken with diarrhea from the antibiotic.
Sunday was also an eventful day for Ellison. She was playing in our bedroom, pulling up on the furniture when she fell and hit her head on the cedar chest. She has a big goose egg, with a purple bruise on her forehead! She cried like I have never heard her cry before! I felt to bad for my little one! We put ice on it after she fell asleep, which I think helped with the swelling. So, there is another first for Ellison.
Otherwise, things are going well. Work is busy as always, I am working the weekend this weekend, which means I get to take a day off during the week, Thursday. I fumbled my way through my first YW activity and Sunday, but am hoping to get better! I am finishing up in Primary, ending my run as President on Wednesday by running the summer Primary activity my Presidency an I planned.
Kam and I have been diligent about exercising. We go at least 3-5 times a week, sometimes more, walking or doing a walk/jog combo for about 50 minutes each session, and then do weights 2 days a week. Thanks to my sister, she has been helping me with the weightlifting part, which she told me helped her drop a lot of weight...I am still waiting for that to happen!
Tuesday was my birthday, and boy was I spoiled! Kam had me look for clues to find my gifts. He got me some perfume, shoes, weights, a game, pictures/frames of Ellison and then a necklace that was from Ellie.
On Friday we went to a Japanese Steakhouse for my birthday dinner. It was so funny to watch the look on Ellison's face as she watched the man cook on the flattop in front of us. She got scared when fire appeared, but was easily calmed. On Saturday Kam had a 10 year reunion, but I will let him blog about that, while Ellison and I attended the ward Pioneer day activity, which was fun.
That was our week in review, sorry to do yet another run down, but that is what has been going on with us. I have decided I can do the run downs, and Kam can do the fun little posts...seems like a good set up! I will remind him to blog about our Sunday activity! I hope all my readers are doing great!

This past Sunday Mom flew back to Mississippi to visit for a few weeks before helping Kallee and the kids drive to D.C. where we will all try to meet up for a few days. Yes, poor Mom doesn't really have a home. Technically she has two houses but I am not quite sure she has a home. Since she must split her time between MS and D.C. So when she goes to either she visits. Regardless of what it actually is when she visits either place the family residences that live their sure do enjoy the time she does. Since Kallee and Chris were out of town to Nauvoo Lisa and I decided to invite Mother over for dinner. After dinner we got Mom to rock it out on our Wii by playing a few minutes of Guitar Hero III. I was impressed at how well Mom did. She tried two songs and each time she played them she was able to complete 40% of the song. I am not sure I have ever really seen my Mom play video games so this was quite something. (Although she really enjoys the bowling on the Wii sports game and does quite well with it.) It is fun to have Mom back even if just for a few weeks Enjoy the picture of Rockin' Mom.

This past week was a pretty good week. I was so happy by only having to work a four day week, it makes me wish every week was a four day week! Work has been somewhat slow, which has been a nice change. Instead of trying to see eleven or twelve patients a day, I have had eight on my list, which allows me time to see all my patients. I am on the ortho floor right now, which is a nice and for the most part, welcomed change. The treatments seem to be easier on this floor and most patients don't mind participating in therapy because they have elected to have their surgeries.
I did have one patient the other day who was in an accident and broke both of his legs, he was young and had surgery to correct his fractures. The Physical Therapist and I went in to work with this gentleman and get him out of bed. The man did fine getting out of bed, but once he tried standing, he told us he simply could not. HE DIDN'T EVEN REALLY TRY! I calmly told him that because of his injuries and his surgery he was going to have pain and would need to try to work through it. He became frustrated and told the PT and I we didn't understand because he had just had surgery yesterday. We explained to him that we get patients out of bed the day after surgery all the time, and sometimes we get them out of bed the day of surgery. We explained to him that we do this with all patients, even the little 80 year old ladies. The man continued to refuse.
What made matters worse was that they were trying to get this man out of the hospital the next day. The man didn't have insurance and couldn't get any equipment unless he paid for it. He kept telling us he needed a wheelchair, but I didn't (and still don't) feel he needs a wheelchair because he is weight bearing as tolerated on both of this legs. I was so frustrated with the man and ready to leave work following that. To all my male readers, I am sorry but this reaffirms that to me, women have a much higher pain tolerance.
Ellison has had quite a remarkable week. She is able to stand unsupported for longer periods of time. She has learned how to wave hello and bye, bye, and we think (crossing my fingers) that she is finally starting to get back on a schedule. Ellison is starting to eat more solid foods and her little tooth continues to grow more and more.
Ellison also celebrated her first fourth of July! She really enjoyed the fireworks, which surprised me, and even fell asleep during the fireworks show, which further surprised me. Kam and I attended the ward pancake breakfast, and then ate dinner and had a fourth of July party at Kam's sisters house with some other ward members. It was a good time, and much better than last year, when I contracted all day long! Happy Fourth of July!

This is my first blog post to what has been Lisa's forum for keeping track of our lives. I don't know why I thought I would post one now but here it goes.
Most of the family knows the "drama" I guess you could say surrounding the families and my dog Kiwi. A quick synopsis will help those that don't know. Kiwi is the forgotten dog. Ever since Mom got Katie the mini schnauzer Kiwi has been kicked to the proverbial cAurb. Because of Kiwi's copious amounts of shedding hair she has not been as free as she would like to come into the house. However, now that Dad lives in D.C. Mom must visit and spend time up there as well. Leaving Kiwi to have free rein of the house. Up until this pas visit that Mom has taken to D.C. Kiwi has been fine. Yet, this past leave from Mom has caused Kiwi to go into crazy, depressed, manic mode. Kiwi has clawed, dug, and abandoned the house she usually tries so desperately to get into.
I had to discuss this with both Kallee and Mom to figure out what to do. We were not sure. Lisa noticed that Lowe's was having a sale on fencing and I looked into that. (Maybe it will still be a possibility) I figured pricing and talked to Mom about it. However, that could take a while and the cost was around $600+. Instead I bought a tether system. So yesterday started Kiwi's, you could say, unindependence day.
A quick story from last year. Our house got infested with fleas. I think Lisa may have blogged about this but a quick reminder. It was awful. What is worse is I noticed a hot spot of flea activity at Mom's house since she left. It was gross. I have since used half a can of pesticide that was under Mom's sink. It may have done the trick. Anyway ever since out infestation I have been paranoid when I see fleas on the dogs and particularly on my person. This led to extreme measures if I was to rescue or take hold of Kiwi's madness.
So, Yesterday I headed to Mom's. Kiwi was not there the day before but came quickly over when called. I immediately got the hair comb and began to brush Kiwi. She was in heaven. No one has done that for a while let alone given her much attention. I then called Mom to locate the doggy hair clippers. With a buzz and some gross but enjoyment I cut into the jungle of Kiwi's mane. It went pretty easily. However, there was a lot of dirt and bugs. Lots of fleas at least two different kinds it appeared. Some were large some were small. They were freaked out because I was destroying their great hiding place. Kiwi did fairly well. I wish I had the camera to take a picture of all the hair. I have it on my phone but do not yet have a way to transfer to computer. Anyway after the shaving I gave her a bath with a couple different fleas shampoos. Locked her in the bathroom while prepared to leave. Sprayed her with flea spray and off we went to walmart. I was nervous about the fleas dirt and hair so Kiwi got to ride in the trunk. Fortunately our car has a 60/40 split on the rear seats and I was able to crack it a bit so Kiwi could get some good fresh air and hang out with Ellison and I. (By the way Ellison loves dogs and has loved Kiwi and Katie since she realized what they are.
Skipping minuet details I got the equipment, plus flea collar for extra protection, set up the tether system on the existing part of the fence in the backyard, got out the medium size harness for dogs and attempted to put it on Kiwi. It was way to small. So we went out later and I exchanged it for a large it fits great. Kiwi spent all yesterday in the garage did fine and is at this moment out on the tether system. She is getting the hang of it and seems much happier. Now Ellison and I can go hang out with her and Kiwi can come on our exercise walks with the family. I really enjoy having Kiwi around and really enjoy the interaction between Ellison and Kiwi. They both seem to not only tolerate each other but enjoy each other.
Ellison will pull and grab at Kiwi's fat rolls and ears. Kiwi does nothing just sits there happy to be loved. Kiwi will try to lick Ellison for loving on her. Ellison loves to watch the dog. If the dog leaves her sight she whips around till Kiwi is in view. Hopefully and so far this situation will work out for everyone. As for Kiwi I think Unindependence Day may be her best day ever. Enjoy the pictures. I think Kiwi looks great shaved. It makes her look skinnier, healthier, and younger. It reminds me of when she was a puppy. So if it is possible I will try to keep her shaved. Except maybe the winter time.