9 Years...and counting

On Valentine's Day Dillon and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I know, it's not our wedding anniversary, but since it falls on V-day we celebrate it anyways...plus, doing anything for 9 years deserves to be recognized. Just in case none of you know how Dillon and I got together here it is:

I had broken up with a guy about 1 month before Valentine's Day 2000 (my senior year of high school), and Dillon and I had been close friends my whole high-school career. He sent me a dozen roses on V-Day, something he used to do for his best girl friends and his mom, which I thought was very sweet and maybe he was just doing it to brighten my day since I was without a Valentine of my own. 2 days later he sent me another dozen roses, and I knew he had "other" interests than just brightening my day...the rest is history.

These are engagement pics from 2006...it must have been 103 degrees by 0800 that day.

The Wedding: October 7, 2006 at Crown Center, KC

Our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico at the Excellence Riviera Maya. If anyone plans to travel to Mexico anytime soon this resort was outstanding. If there's one word to describe it it's excellent!!! We will definitely be back for an anniversary sometime.

Deep sea fishing! I guess I didn't learn on our first trip in Florida that I should take Dramamine before these excursions because I was so sick by the end of the 6 hour fishing trip. Although, it was fun fighting those damn fish!!

Just after our scuba diving trip in Cozymel. This must have been one of the most amazing experiences, and I can't wait to be able to go again!!

Family pics we had taken this year...mainly for the kids, but Meredith (our outstanding photographer and friend) grabbed some cute pics of just us.






Our real wedding anniversary is in October, but I can't help myself from recognizing our first anniversary.

P.S. We took a recommendation from the valet attendant at the downtown Marriott that we stayed at Saturday night, and went to a place called Nara's at 16th and Main. If you like sushi, which has become an addiction of mine since we first had it on our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico, this place is a must. Hands down, the best sushi and atmosphere in KC, and no wait on V-Day. We will definitely be returning.

Ankle Update

I finally had an MRI of my ankle last Thursday and found out that I had full thickness tears of the talofibular and calcaneofibular ligaments, which I'm definitely not happy about, but at least it explains all the pain and swelling weeks after. An ortho appointment of Friday landed me with the prognosis of: hot pink cast for two weeks, upon which they would remove the cast with hopes of applying an air cast and Lord knows how much PT.

After showing off the new fluorescent accessory to a few friends in the Birthing Center, I went home and took off the walking shoe they had given me to discover the cast wasn't dry when I was sent out of the office and had buckled under the pressure of walking. By 2:30p.m. I was back in the ortho's office having the first cast cut off (with basically a big Dremel with a blade the nurse assured me wasn't going to cut my leg off and "would just tickle a bit"). Dr Blake said "second times a charm I guess", and I decided on neon green for the second cast. After waiting a good 10 minutes to make sure this cast was completely dry I stood up to try and walk on it and it was wrapped too far up on my toes so it cut into me with every step. Second time wasn't a charm, and back to the chopping block I went and a third cast was put on (I stayed with the green). After waiting for adequate dry time I stood up and it fit as well as a cast could fit, I suppose.

For any of you out there who have ever had to were a cast for any period of time, you deserve a gold star. I tend to be a bit on the claustrophobic side anyways, and after not being able to bend my ankle in any direction for about 5 hours I truly thought I was going to lose my mind. They should really prescribe Valium along with a cast...I could have used some! I couldn't sleep, the only way it was comfortable was when I was standing, and what a person has to go through to shower with a cast on. I can't believe some people wear them for up to a year.

God must have been looking out for my mental health, because the silly thing started cracking along the side where my foot would bend to walk, and every time I took a step it would pinch me. So, a few prayers, a much smaller version of the ortho's cast saw that Dillon had in the garage, and about 15 minutes later I was again a free woman...well, at least my ankle. For some reason I never took any pics with it on, but I'll have to dig it out of the trash and post one later.

Today I went back to see Dr. Blake, and since I seem to have the worst luck with casts, he prescribed a walking boot that pretty much does the same thing except: I can shower, move my foot, and I have my sanity back! Still can't work for two weeks because he thinks it will never heal with me up walking on it for hours at a time, but I am feeling much better, and have plans to finish at least one of my classes while I'm off.

And Jamie, don't worry, I promise I'll be back to help Aubrey arrive into this world. I can't wait!!

8 Months Old

My baby has officially grown up!! Ethan turned 8 months yesterday, and is doing all sorts of amazing stuff. It's so hard to imagine that eight months ago I was labored with him for 5 hours (active labor), and my dream of having a home birth came true. I can still look back on it and say that it was the most amazing, connective, empowering experience I have ever gone through.

Okay, enough with the emotional stuff. Ethan started crawling about 1 month ago, which we knew would come a little sooner than Ava since he has someone to chase around. We are close to refusing to eat any type of baby food. It seems that he likes the texture of table food better, and if we're eating dinner he has to eat what we eat. There is no amount of persuading or coercing in the world that will make him down the pureed mush.

His newest accomplishment he discovered today. He was able to get a knee up on the fireplace, and it was all over after that. He quickly discovered how easily he could climb up onto it, and I'm sure he will attempt to conquer the stairs tomorrow.

He has three teeth (all on the bottom), and four more coming soon (all on the top). How weird!

He still thinks Ava is IT, and will follow her anywhere. He loves to have us carry him around while we chase her around the dining room table, and will laugh hysterically the entire time.

This past week he acquired his first ear infection, and Dr Mac said that he actually had a blister on his eardrum. And we thought all that crying was his teeth coming in:(

Overall, he's on the move, into everything, and we always said we were in trouble with Ethan because Ava was such a perfect baby...and it is definitely true, but I wouldn't give it up for the world. My children provide me with the kind of happiness only a mother can explain, and they amaze me everyday!!

One Week Later

So...it's been 1 week today, and unfortunately I'm still not back to normal. My ankle aches all day, and even though I can walk a lot better, if I do it puffs up like a marshmallow!! After sleeping all night the swelling improves, but by 9 or 10a.m. it looks about the same as it did the night I sprained it. This pic was taken first thing this morning before I had been up walking around on it so even though all the bruising looks nasty, it's not AS swollen.

I'm really wondering if I did break it in some way...maybe a hairline fracture or something, but I still can't justify the $100 ER co-pay just for them to tell me "Yep, it's broke. Now keep doing the same things you've been doing the last week...rest, ice, elevate." If it's really broken I don't think I would really be able to put pressure on it (which I am); however, with the swelling being just as bad as last week, and the pain still prominent, I wonder. Any thoughts?

My stupid freakin' ankle!!

Last night I went out for some quality time with my older sister Tammy. We has some dinner and drinks at this new country bar outside Raymore (it was somewhere in the middle of both of our houses. Some of you may know I have a thing for high-heeled shoes when I go out, and normally they don't bother me. I have no trouble walking or dancing in them for hours, and there's something to be said about a great pair of heels with perfect fitting jeans. However, my heels did not like me last night because about 11:00 p.m. I got up from the table to go use the restroom and twisted my right ankle.....yes, AGAIN. We finally got our new camera this week, and I figure I probably need some proof of my repeat injury since this is the second time in two months I've sprained it.

This is about thirty minutes after it happened.

800mg of Motrin and elevation overnight...

The bruising is just starting to set in, and walking was a lot easier last night when I was "under the influence". Today, walking is not an option. I can get back and forth to the bathroom and kitchen by hobbling or hopping; however, most of my day has been spent in the recliner with it elevated. Luckily this was not my weekend to work, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to work by Tuesday. Do you think I could get an ankle replacement? I think this one's had it's day!!

Middle Range Theory...ugh!

So, we all know I'm back in school full-time, and am working on my second term as of last week. So this term I have the joy of taking a class on nursing theory, specifically, Middle Range Theory. We all know that everything we do as health care practitioners somehow ties back to one of those theories that we learned about ages ago, but could really care less to ever think about again. Unfortunately, I thought that I was done covering theory in undergrad, but here I am again, and believe me when I say undergrad was definitely better. I am reading the most poorly written textbook I have ever read in my educational career, which is long running. I know this book is technically written in English, however, it seems like a foreign language.

I tend to think of myself as an intelligent person that analyzes everything, and am constantly thinking about the evidence and practicality behind what I do as a LDRP nurse, and most people I work with could describe me as a sort of devil's advocate in the Birthing Center; however, they continue to support my education, and sometimes my ideas about pregnancy and birth as a whole. So to all of you who have been in contact with me the last few weeks, this class has increased my stress level and here's why"

"The paradigm debate remains unresolved. Without the emergence of a single dominant paradigm, nursing is left with multiple paradigms that are either competing or complementary or the need to develop an integrated paradigm that dialectically combines the perspectives of multiple paradigms. With this state of paradigm confusion, it would be helpful for nurse theorists to identify the paradigmatic perspective from which the theory is developed and nurse researchers to identify the paradigmatic perspective from which the research questions were posed and the research methods chosen." (Peterson & Bredow, 2009, p.14)

Peterson, S. and Bredow, T. (2009). Middle Range Theories: Application to Nursing Research (2nd ed.) (p. 4). Philedelphia: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.

This paragraph was in the first chapter about 4 pages in, and if you can imagine the entire rest of the book was written in the same glorious style that makes me want to blow my head off while reading it. If any of you are able to ingest, digest, and spit back up the previous paragraph in a way that makes sense without the urge of suicide then you deserve a gold star...or possibly the Noble Peace Prize.

So, point of the story:
1) Don't go back to school for an advanced practice degree, and
2) If you do, also get a script for Zanax

No New Pics

Our camera got broken on New Year's. We're really not sure what happened, but I went to get it out of my purse and the screen was broken. Ironically, I had been begging to get a D-SLR for Christmas, and Santa must not have gotten my letter because there was no camera under the tree for me:( However, he must have really wanted me to have one because our old one did break somehow. So, i got to order my new Canon D-SLR, and it's in the mail right now. We got a great deal off e-bay on a brand new camera with all four lens's, four filters, the flash, two tripods, a bag, and a case. I am so excited to get it and start practicing my photography, which has turned into an addiction since I started blogging. They take such higher quality photos, and soon you will see some of my beginner's work!