Cutting down the trees

We trimmed the two trees in front of the house. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the big tree in front of the window, but we'll see. It's definitely better now that it's trimmed. The trees on the left (4 of them) are getting cut down. We weren't even sure if they were ours because they are so far away. But they are ours. And they have grown into the shade trees. So we're getting rid of them.

These pine/evergreen trees are getting cut down. The ash and maple tree will stay. In fact, the smaller pine tree, which you can't see in the picture, is about half the size of the other three, but it's growth has virtually stopped because it grew up and into the shade tree. It's kind of a mess. They were supposed to get cut down Monday or Tuesday, but the guy couldn't come because of the weather. I'm hoping they'll be down before the weekend.

HIDA Scan on Thursday

Shaylee goes in for her HIDA scan on Thursday morning at 10am. Tara will be taking her since she has the day off and I don't. Shaylee is really really tired of her stomach hurting, but she's getting better and trying to not think about it.

The HIDA scan will start with a saline lock/IV with them injecting the contrast into it. They will scan for an hour, then add some CCK which will make the gall bladder function like she has eaten something. Then they will scan some more while they watch the gall bladder work. After that, she's done. The scan should take about 1 1/2 hours total.

We still haven't heard from the GI doc about a cancellation. Bummer. We're so hoping to get her in sooner.

Sunny Days

These two little furballs enjoyed some time on the deck

this weekend when it was sunny. They really enjoyed it and

now think they need to go out all the time.

I talked to Shaylee's doctor today about the ultrasound that was done last Friday. He said (as did the tech) that it was normal and since she can't get into the GI doc for another month (June 4th) that the next step is to do the HIDA scan. That will get set up by Wednesday. I'm not sure how soon it will be done as we are starting to fall into unfamiliar territory.

On a totally different note, Jayden decided to pull a handful of kitten hair out of one of the kittens and then later on tonight, he put one of them in the toilet and then threw her down the stairs. I couldn't believe it. We didn't know he'd put her in the toilet until Mike went to get her from downstairs and she was all wet. That's when we put two and two together and sure enough, the toilet seat and bathroom floor were wet. Leave it to Jayden. He likes to play in toilets!

Kite Flying

Yesterday was a perfect day to fly kites. We pulled this kite out, which my parents bought me in Oregon many, many years ago. And yep, it still flies!

Can you still see it? All the string was let out, thanks to Mike. Let's just say, our wrists were very tired by the time we got it reeled back in.

This is Shawndra's kite. She had fun flying this one. It took us awhile to get the knots out of the line, but eventually it took off and did quite well for an old kite.

See?!

And Jayden, he just hung out chasing bubbles with the other kids!
Shaylee went in and had an ultrasound done on all of her internal organs on Friday. Hopefully we should hear from the doctor on Monday about the next step. The gal doing the ultrasound didn't think she seen anything abnormal. The next step will be to do a HIDA scan to look at the functions of her kidneys. We're really hoping Dr. N gets a cancellation to get her in sooner.

Gall Bladder Disease?

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

I'll start with Shaylee again, since a few things have changed. I spoke to her doctor in depth about what the plan is from here. We have to keep track of when her stomach ache starts, what she has eaten (more specifically if it was fatty) and the time line from when she ate to when it starts to hurt. Basically he wants to know if it could be Gall Bladder Disease, which has been more common in children.

The first step (if she's not better in a few days) is to do an ultrasound of her stomach to make sure there are no abnormalities there. He figured this would come back looking good. Then the next process would be to do a Hydroscan to see how the kidneys and gall bladder are functioning.

We do have an appointment with a Gastroenterologist on June 4th, which is a LONG ways out when your stomach hurts. That was devastating news to Shaylee. Since the appointment is so far out, we are on a cancel list, so hopefully we can get in sooner. Her doctor has faxed her medical records to Sioux Falls to Dr. Nanton's office so he can review the case. This is also Jayden's GI doc, so I'm hoping maybe this will have a little pull, but I doubt it.

I talked to Shaylee's teachers yesterday to find out how she behaves in school and if she complains of being sick. They both said no that she seems fine. She plays and doesn't act sick. I've also noticed this around the house too. As long as she's doing "fun" things, she's fine, but once the chores kick in or it's bedtime, her stomach hurts. It can be quite frustrating for both everyone. I talked to her about that yesterday and she says it's because her stomach hurts after she eats. But we walked to the park right after supper last night and she didn't complain at all once we started going. Before and after, yes.

Last night was a rough night before bed. I ended up giving her a pill that is supposed to stop the spasm's and slow the muscles of the stomach and intestines down. Then she went to bed and I didn't hear another word, so maybe that really helped.

In the meantime....we wait.

Shaylee

Shaylee went to the doctor yesterday for a follow up from the ER. They did more blood work, which was done by a STUDENT, who poked her 4 times in the arm before they got it right. If I would have known before hand it was a student I would have spoken up, but I had not arrived at he clinic. Mike and my mom were with her. I got there shortly after. That is so ridiculous that a STUDENT would practice on a child!

Anyhow...

Her bloodwork came back and urine test came back looking ok for the most part. He was going to check her for Giardia, which could have explained it because you get that from camping and she does lots of camping with her dad. I remembered taking a stool sample into the hospital at 9pm awhile back and I was almost positive that is what was being tested. The doctor had no lab results saying what was going on, so he had his nurse call. Sure enough, they had already tested her for that the last time this happened.

What's our next step? Well....

Now we try to get her into a Gastroenterologist, hopefully the same one that Jayden sees. They will probably want to do a scope to actually see what her stomach looks like. That bad news...that doctor will not be available for at least another month, possibly two.

In the meantime....she is on two different medications, one to stop the stomach from the spasms and to slow down the stomach and intestines, and two, to coat the stomach and reduce the acidity level. Now we wait.

On a different, slightly random comment, my computer is still in the shop, so there are still no pictures. I'm hoping it will be done this week yet. Sounds like the User Profile was corrupted....whatever that means. Ha!

Blah. Computers.

Hi. Well, I'm not able to update my blog because my laptop has taken a turn for the worse and has gone to the doctor. I went to load it yesterday and it went to some ancient looking Windows 95 screen with tons of pop ups saying certain things couldn't be found. Plus all of my icons on my desktop were gone, ate up, missing, no where to be found. I shut it down and tried to load it up again, except now it's even worse. It can't find my user profile. I can't even log in. Blah. Computers and technology just suck sometimes. SO, what does this mean? Well, it means you will only see verbal updates, with no pictures until it returns from the doctor and hopefully feels better.

Speaking of doctors....

Shaylee and I spent 5 1/2 hours in the ER last night. Along with half of Brookings. No, seriously, the ER was full all night. They even had to put patients in the hallway! Anyhow, to make a very long drawn out story, not quite so long, Shaylee has been suffering from severe stomach aches now and then, but consistently for 8 days. However, all the tests they have run say she's fine and none of the medicines help with pain. Not even Vicodin. Yikes! We did have a few laughs in the ER....like the guy who kept passing gas next to us. I could keep a straight face, but a 10 year old, that's hard. Or the "lost testicle" that the doctor "can't find" and then hearing my daughter say, "what's a testicle?". Ha! Well, at least at that point some sleepy pain meds started to kick in so we could avoid another puberty lesson. I sure hope they found it though...sounded painful.

Anyhow, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll be back later or tomorrow with something new! :-)

Hula Hula While She Waits

Hula Hoop Devin

Passing time while.....


daddy fixes and prepares her for....

THIS

Finally....a bike to call her own. It's not NEW, but it's NEW to her!

Really.....A Turkey??

Kids and I were on our way to Brookings today and there was a huge turkey on HWY 14 with a lady taking its picture. I really wanted to take a picture of it also, but didn't have my camera with me. We came home several hours later and the turkey was gone. I was bummed.

As we pulled into the driveway, I spotted the turkey across the street. So we walked over to it and started to take its picture. The big bird walked across the street, posed under our tree, walked to our backyard and hung out for awhile by the deck then over by the trees. It had to be the most ironic and crazy thing I've seen it quite some time. Seriously. This bird was huge.

Give me some room

I love these kittens, I really do, but I need a little space now and then. Any time I sit down in the computer chair, they climb claw their way to the top and tear pluck their way down to my back and stay right there, tucked between my back and the chair. Then when I go to stand up the bothersome felines loving kittens HANG from my butt as if I had a tail and dig their claws into my skin!

This, That, and Happy Easter!

Wow, I can't believe we're coming to an end of a fabulous long holiday weekend. It has been so much fun being home with gorgeous weather and the kids who always keep us entertained. I do have several days (lots) worth of pictures to share from the long weekend. Let's just say as of 12:15pm on Thursday, my weekend began. Yay!

Thursday

And Jayden started with a game of Peek-A-boo through daddy's hat.

We had been talking about putting Jayden into a toddler bed for awhile now, but have always had the fear of how many times is he going to get out of bed and how long will we be patient to deal with it. Our plans were to start on Thursday night and work with him through the weekend when we didn't have to get up early. Well, we forgot to do it on Thursday.

Friday

So instead, we took the crib apart on Friday. Here is how it started. This crib has gone through many phases with him. He used to have wood and string about it to allow for his feeding tube to hang above him when he still had to have his tube "to chimney". There have been many nights of checking on him and putting his crib to a slant to try to help his breathing, stuffy nose, and coughing.

We started him out at nap time in his big boy bed wondering how long it would take, like I mentioned above. I only had to put him back in his bed 5 times before he fell sound asleep.

And then, towards the end of his nap, he rolled out onto the floor and did not like it. Poor guy.
The little ones also wanted to color on Friday. Devin made lots of pictures, using the front and back of her paper and Jayden's, when he finished!

And Jayden scribbled using lots of different colors and even let me trace his hand. He was pretty intrigued by seeing his hand on paper. He looked at it for a long time and then laid his hand back on top. It was quite cute.

Saturday

Today was full of events. We started the day by going to the Easter Egg Hunt at the Swiftel Center. I have to tell you, it was an experience that we had never encountered. Of course, the 4 kids who were young enough to participate were in seperate "pens". Pens you ask? Well they had them fenced off in areas where it was like wild animals inside the pens. Having only 2 adults made for an interesting time watching all 4. My time was entirely spent with the youngest. He HATED this hunt and proved his point! He was fine while we were watching and waiting and I was explaining what we were going to do when it was time. The time came, we went into our pen and I put him down. Can you guess what happened next?

Yep, he threw a fit. He screamed, cried, and threw himself down on top of all the candy. Now the picture below is after the candy hunt. I tried to help him put candy in his basket and just as I thought he was picking candy up to put it in the basket, he threw it at other kids. Well that was the final straw, or so I thought. I took him out, all while the other parents were kind of giving me that "I'm sorry, but what the heck" kind of look. I get him out of the fence and realize he's kicked his shoe off. Thankfully it fell where we stopped. Whew. I was exhausted.

Even through all of that, we managed to take a decent picture.

Devin filled her basket, but not as much as Dalton. His was FULL of candy.

Joseph got a lot too. He even picked something out for Jayden and put it in his basket.


When we got home, we started cleaning. I found myself spraying off the patio furniture with the hose, then Mike said the gutters needed to get cleaned. He planned on doing it, but I was having so much fun with the hose that I volunteered to do it. My fear of heights really got the best of me in the beginning. It took me 5 minutes alone to make the step up onto the roof. Once I was up there, I seemed ok, until it was time to get down again. Yikes!

Sunday

Happy Easter everyone! The kids woke this morning to find their baskets, although it took them a good hour to realize today was not a normal day. We made a very tasty dinner today for my mom, Craig and my sister. The only one missing was Shaylee. It was really good.

Jayden liked digging through his basket and picking out some candy. I think his favorites were the Smarties or the gummy life saver eggs.

Jayden found his basket behind the couch with a little help from us.

Joseph found his basket in the bathroom way up high on the top shelf. He thought that was tricky and he definitely had the hardest time finding his.

Devin was always too busy digging through her basket to take a decent picture. She found her basket inside the china hutch. Dalton found his basket behind the blinds downstairs. But apparhently he had found it before that, but left it there and was eating the candy from it before we knew he had found it.

And when Shaylee came home, she found her basket tucked behind the towels in the bathroom. She claims that was the easiest place to find it, but it still took her 5 minutes!

Peek-A-Boo

Where's Jayden? Do you see him?

There he is! Peek-A-Boo!

Snow

Here are a few pictures I took on Sunday during the snow fall.

Hopefully the last snow fall.

I'm ready for spring.

Did I mention that Jayden got his antibiotics switched (again). I believe we are going on 5 months of being sick. I really should try to figure out how long its been and at what point do I start questioning a second opinion. Just a thought right now....

Introducing...

Macie

Allie

Two very fun and playful kittens....


who fight over who gets to ride in the bus.
Thank you to everyone who emailed us many ideas!

So Far....

We've had quite a few names mentioned so far. Many of them are cute. I'm still unsure what names the little beauties will get.

• Callie
• Sallie
• Cutie
• Beautie
• Simba
• Macie
• Jacie
• Jazzie
• Lacie
• Nala

Any one else have any ideas? Let us know! We're headed to grandma and grandpas for supper tonight, so I'll see if I get an update on here tonight. Otherwise there will be one tomorrow.

Kittens Need Names

Meet the newest members of our household.

They need names! We are hoping to come up with two

names that end in "ie" to keep it similar to Sophie.

We are sisters and we are 6 weeks old.

I am a sweetheart and have beautiful eyes and facial markings.

Can you think of a name for me?

And I have a black leg and a black gotee on my chin. I

also have a beautiful black mask on my eyes.

Can you think of a name for me?

I really love to play with my owner's toes.

Sophie really doesn't like us yet. I think she'll come around

when she realizes how sweet and fun we really are.
So can you come up with names for us? Feel free to leave
a comment down below or send our owners an email. We
are anxious to be called something other than "kittens".