Pyper update

Monday morning Pyper woke up chipper and feeling like herself again. She threw up pretty consistently until about 2 pm on Sunday, then she stopped but kept acting like she felt crummy. Her activities consisted of the usual rough-housing/playing/fighting with Hakan, so I was hopeful that her sickness was gone. Well, around 7 pm (Monday) she started complaining about feeling yucky again, and sure enough she threw up her dinner. Later after she'd gone to bed she threw up again, then once more early this morning. Aaron and I decided it was time to find out what's going on. For the record, I've always been determined to NOT be one of those mothers who runs to the doctor every time my child has a sniffle. But I hate thinking that maybe they have something I should be worried about and I'm making them suffer by not taking them in. Since she hasn't had any other symptoms (no fever or anything) I haven't been too concerned about having her seen by a doctor. We've been trying to keep her hydrated and rested, but that's about it.

Anyway, we took her in to one of those walk-in clinics and after waiting foreeeeever, Aaron went into a room with Pyper while I stayed with Hakan out front. We waited some more, 'til I finally couldn't take it anymore and we went back as well. They had her give a urine sample and not long after, the Physician's Assistant came in to talk to us about the results. He said there was blood in her urine which could indicate a urinary tract infection, and "Now, don't be alarmed," he says, there were a lot of ketones in it as well. Since I didn't know at the time that ketones=proteins, I didn't know why I would be alarmed. Not until he said the word "diabetes" anyway. Yeah. I listened, trying to stay calm and not just start crying right then and there, looking at my tiny, pale little girl sitting on that bed looking so pathetic and tired. He gave us a prescription for some antibiotics in case she does have a urinary tract infection, and stressed that we need to get her in to see a Pediatrician right away to find out why she's passing proteins.

Here's something I found online that was helpful:
Ketones are a by-product/or waste product when your body burns stored fat for energy.

The foods you eat break down into glucose (sugar). Glucose travels in the blood and into your cells. Insulin is a hormone (or "key") that "unlocks the doors of your cells" to allow glucose to enter your cells where it can be turned into energy. So without insulin, glucose wouldn't be able to get into the cells.

Your brain (and the rest of your body) requires glucose to function. When you haven't eaten for a while, or during the night when you're asleep, your liver releases stored glucose to keep you supplied with energy.

If you don't eat for several days, the stored glucose in the liver is depleted, and your body is in a starvation state. In this situation, the body will break down stored fat to get energy, (and ketones can show in the urine, indicating that fat was burned) and also the body will create sugar out of other substances in the body in order to supply the brain with glucose.

Obviously, diabetes isn't the only reason for her test results. It's probably not even the most likely reason considering she hasn't eaten much over the past 3 days. The P.A. kept trying to reassure us by saying not to be alarmed BUT this is something that we need to pursue right away. We didn't have a pediatrician to take her to (we haven't needed one until now!) but that was his suggestion. So I called up a doctor that The Baby Place had recommended to me for after we have the baby and asked if Pyper could be seen- soon. She's got an appointment for tomorrow. The clinic is going to culture her urine sample and give us a call with the results tomorrow as well. So until then, "don't worry too much". Geesh.

Birthday list

Hey guys, I decided to add another "gadget" to the sidebar that some of you may find helpful. As I'm aging and my brain becomes more and more softened and useless, it's becoming more and more difficult to remember everyone's birthdays. Yes, I write them on my calendar, but I thought this might be a good place to put them as well...? I went ahead and put in my family's. So, could everybody (or one somebody who knows them all) add everyone else's, too? Thanks a bunch!

Pukey Pyper

I'm not sure, but I think Pyper got food poisoning at the Pack Meeting yesterday. She's been throwing up since about midnight last night. Poor thing. She's so pathetic. She spent the night on the floor next to my side of the bed throwing up about every hour. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.Not ten seconds after I took this she chucked again. She's so miserable.

Go Ahead and Say It......awwwwww!!

Kris and I took our engagement pictures last week and here are some of my favorites.  Sorry I haven't posted anything in the last...ummm...year.  It's just that between school, work, and the wedding I don't have a whole lot of free time to post or for that fact, to do anything to post about.

Zoey doesn't like to get out of bed at 6 in the morning.

 

Beautiful Day

I was so inspired by the beautiful weather we had today that I simply had to write and share my love for life. I didn't realize how much I missed the sun until it came out today, and for the first time in months, the sun was out, the skies were blue, the air was clear, the temperature was warm, and their wasn't a spot of snow on the ground. Oh, it was so nice.

On Tuesday, Molly had her very first birthday! She got a cheese burger and an "apple pie." I realize this is doing nothing to bring my affections towards a dog down to a healthy level, but what the heck. Love you guys.

Keith

Blerg

Hiya. I started to write this post as an update on Hakan's potty training, but realized that's a subject better left for those who ask, rather than just sending it out there for any innocent person to read. So I'll just say, we're still working on it.

And, in case you were wondering, I. Feel. Huge.

Catchup (not ketchup)

Well, I’ve been seriously delinquent in posting lately, so I’d better get to it. The big event I have missed, of course, is Kimberly going into the MTC. We went up on Tuesday the 3rd and spent the night with my cousins Blake and LuAnn in Orem. We still had a little shopping and running around to do in the morning, but we got her to the MTC about 11:00 and got her checked in. After dropping off her luggage, they have the missionaries go in one door and the families go in another. Both doors go into the same lobby, but the missionaries go to a counter, check in, get their name tags and meal cards and then come back to the families. Mom got to pin her name tag on her.

Then we all went into a large room (chapel) and waited for the room to fill (about 20 minutes). In the meantime, they were showing the Mormonad TV commercials on a screen up front, which I didn’t think was fair. How am I not going to get choked up when they are showing those things? Anyway, they started the meeting by singing “Called to Serve” (very loud) and we heard from the MTC mission president and his wife. His wife held up the book Preach My Gospel (missionary lessons and guidelines) and asked if anyone had memorized the purpose on the front page of the book (implying that they should have). An elder behind us raised his hand and she asked him to recite it. He did pretty well, but got stuck a couple of times and finally gave up. Then Kimberly raised her hand, got called on and asked if she could sing it. She’d learned it to a song in her mission prep class at BYUI. So there she stood in front of several hundred people and sang this purpose song. I don’t think shyness or fear of people is going to be an issue on her mission. Anyway, they closed the meeting and had the missionaries leave through one set of doors and the families through another set, and that was goodbye. It was a great experience and we’re excited for her. She’s excited as well and I’m sure she will do a great job as a missionary.

Bye the way, she has requested lots of mail. Don't know if she can access the blog while on her mission, so it might be a good idea for you to print out your posts and mail them to her along with a note. :).

As for us here at the park, things are much the same. We've gotten a lot of snow lately, which for me means lots of shoveling plowing and grooming. Iwas up on the mountain last Sunday night and noticed a truck and trailer parked in the parking lot there at Midway. I later found out that the couple it belonged to had gotten separated and stranded. They didn't start looking for them until Tuesday, at which point I pretty much gave up hope on them. Three days up on that mountain? I know I would have died. But on Wednesday, just before they were ready to shift the search area to another place, a helicopter happened to see them just over the ridge from the command post at Midway and they were rescued. Both in good shape, although the woman may have some frostbite on her feet. I wasn't invoved in the search, though Frank and Brian helped with it. I was feeling a little bad about not doing anything about the truck after seeing it still there on Sunday night, but there are always cars and trucks parked there and it just isn't possible to check on them all. I'm just glad they were ok and things worked out good for them. I was back up last night and a storm moved in on me and I was just about whited out a couple of times. Between the snow and the wind, I got pretty turned around a couple of times. I'll close with a picture of the storm moving in from the west with the sun going down behind it. Hope all of you have a good Valentines Day and Presidents weekend all wrapped up into one. Dad

Back to Eastern Idaho

I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I'd do a quick catch-up of what we're up to. Aaron's been dealing with a crisis at work recently that has to do with their biggest customer and a product that isn't turning out well when it gets put under the heat lamps in their stores. He woke up Saturday and decided that the only way to make sure he's done ALL that he can to resolve the issue is to drive to Idaho Falls where their seasoning company is located and work on things himself. (Keep in mind, this is Research and Development stuff- a job he was taken out of a year ago and is still being asked to do anyway. They're just now getting around to hiring someone to take over, but Aaron's been doing two jobs and only getting paid for one since last March. IRRITATING!)

Anyway, Sunday morning we got up, packed and drove the 5 hours to Idaho Falls and spent the night with Grandma Bobbie. Aaron's Aunt Judy was also here to take care of Grandma after an eyelid lift surgery she was having the next morning. Grandma figured it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to have us and the kids around while she's trying to recover, so yesterday we got a hotel room to stay in for Monday and Tuesday nights. Last night we met up with Todd and Kristen and had some dinner, then tonight we'll drive up to Rexburg and make Todd wait on us at Frontier Pies. :)

We plan to head home in the morning, arriving in time to make our chiropractor appointments, my baby appointment right after that, Scout meetings for both of us that evening, with enough time left in the day for me to get things all ready for the preschool Valentine's Day party I'm in charge of on Thursday morning... hopefully.

Right now I'm sitting in a dark, quiet hotel room while the kids take a much needed nap. I always hate being in hotels with them all day because I'm so uptight about the amount of noise they make. I'm constantly shushing them and telling them not to run or stomp or have any fun whatsoever. It's not fair to them and it stresses me the heck out. Finally around lunch time we headed out. We went over to Ross to look around, then to the mall because I had an Old Navy gift card. The entire time I was wishing it was warmer so they could go play somewhere. Bless Aaron for getting transfered- I forgot how miserable winters are here! Snow blowing right in your face, bitter cold wind cutting right through your clothes- it sucks! And for some idiotic reason the only shoes I packed are backless, so I'm constantly getting freezing snow on my heels.

I considered taking the kids to a movie after their naps, but there aren't any matinees at the cheap theater. So I may take them back over to the mall and let them play on the little indoor playground there. Poor things, I know they're going stir crazy. Me, too, as a matter of fact.

Just a Quick Update

For anyone that might be following our little Greek tragedy, Rachelle and I are back in our apartment after spending 5 weeks as refugees thanks to the water damage and mold in our bedroom. It was a rough time, thanks primarily to the jerks doing the work, but that is all behind us now and we are really happy to be back home. Molly is happy too. She was getting a little stir crazy in that hotel and believe it or not, she was acting crazier than usual. Oh, speaking of Molly, she is going to be a "dog" instead of a "puppy" this month - we are going to celebrate an entire year of not killing her on the 18th. She gets a trip to the vet and a cheese burger.

Good luck on taxes and watch out for zombies. Love you all.

Keith

Molly and her new collar.

Simple pleasures.

p.s. B and D , I want more pictures of Zoey.

Poor swolly rolly polly Zoey

We just got back from a visit to the vet with Zoey. Actually it was our second visit of the day. After we got home the first time, we noticed that her eye looked a little red and puffy. So we called them back and they told us to bring her back in. By the time we made it back there, her whole face was swollen up like a balloon. Apparently she had an allergic reaction to one of her vaccines. They gave her a couple more shots and sent us home. It doesn't seem to bother her too much, but she sure looks funny.

Before:


After:


Her lips feel like a chicken fillet.

Just an update - not much to say

Dad here. Just to let you know we're all still alive down here. Mom and Kimberly have gone up to Orem this weekend to do some shopping for Kimberly to get ready for her mission. She's only 2 1/2 weeks away from the MTC! They're staying with Taylor and Daniel and will be back Monday some time. We managed to talk Grandma into coming out for Kimberly's farewell (it wasn't too hard). Grandma flew into Salt Lake this weekend and will ride back down here with Pam and Kimberly on Monday. So that will be fun to have her here for a little while. Don't know yet how she's getting home - we'll wing it when the time comes. I hope I get to drive her home - I could use a few days in California. Jennifer didn't go with them because she had a cheerleader commitment on Friday night and a paper to get written for school that she knew wouldn't get done if she went on the road trip. I'm pretty much doing the same old thing. Couple of grooming trips up on the mountain each week and holding down the fort here at the park. Life is good. I sure enjoy reading about how all of you are doing and keeping up with you through this blog. It's fun. Keep up the good work and take care of yourselves. I'll add a picture I got of the moonrise up on Cedar Mountain last week. Love, Dad

Update

So, I thought I would try to give everyone an update on our lives. First, the happy stuff. Rachelle and I have decided that we are going to hold the wedding in Winston Salem, NC in a nice little bed and breakfast. The date is going to be Saturday night, October 3, 2009. We should be able to accommodate anyone several days before that, so we can all have a nice time. We will of course let everyone know as soon as we find out more information and all that good stuff. Here is a link to the bed and breakfast: http://www.shaffnerhouse.com/

In other news, Rachelle has been working on a project that is centered around the Sundance Film Festival. The project is called Deconstructing Sundance (www.deconstructingsundance.com) and the idea is that they use advanced algorithms and other technilogical wizardry to predict the winners of the festival. Anyhoo, Rachelle has gotten a lot of press for it and the New York Times even blogged about it. Check it out. http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/the-bagger-at-sundance-weaponized-spam-analytics/

Life is still a little crummy right now, what with the problems we have been having in our apartment. When the leak first happened, I never thought we would be living in the living room for as long as we have. They found mold in the ceiling after ripping up the walls and the carpet, so they had an abatement crew complete with suits and masks in here to clean everything up. When everything is said and done, we will have been living on the living room floor for over a month. On the bright side, it has been kinda fun goofing around on the floor with Rachelle, kinda like a really long slumber party. She is supposed to paint my finger nails tonight ;) We are trying to keep our heads high and remember that this too, will pass.

Ramblitudes about nothingness

Well today is the last day of my 3 weeks of vacation. It feels a little strange. Obviously I don't really want to go back to work, but it will be nice to fall back into a regular routine. I don't think Zoey is going to like spending that much time alone, but she'll just have to learn how to deal with it. I hope everybody's week will start out better than last week did.

Since no post is complete without some kind of picture, here's a photo of Dena and I at the NC State basketball game that we went to while we were in NC for Christmas. They have the center court section of the original Reynolds Coliseum floor on display at the RBC center where they play now. It's neat.

Can I contribute?

Since the theme of our family's blogs for today seems to be one of how generally crummy our Monday has been, I thought I'd share ours. Well, Aaron's. The other day he was flossing his teeth and a big chunk came flying out of his mouth. No, not food- tooth! Well, at least it looked like tooth. Couldn't really tell if it was tooth or tooth-colored filling, but anyway it left a pretty good sized hole in his molar. Of course, with it being a holiday week, not one of the dozen dentists he called were open for him to get have it checked out. Luckily it wasn't super painful (though he did have to use a leftover Vicadin that first night) and he was able to make it through the weekend.

Since the pain was tolerable he was starting to think that maybe it wouldn't be a big deal. Today he got lucky and found a great dentist near his work who had a cancellation and could see him right away. Well, turns out it was kind of a big deal. What fell out had been part tooth, part filling, which had been covering a rather large cavity that either hadn't been fully cleared out before being filled in, or had developed a crack which allowed the cavity to grow while being nicely protected. Whatever the case, he ended up having a surprise root canal and spent about 3 hours in the dentist's chair today. He has to go back again later to have a crown put on.

Oh, and in the middle of this, while he's sitting there with metal and crap in his mouth, his boss kept calling him (he had to go to the dentist in the middle of the day) so he finally answered his cell only to learn that a MAJOR situation had developed with a product for their BIGGEST client. He had to go back to work after the dentist to try and sort things out so they wouldn't lose this customer (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say what company it is, but you've all shopped there, and probably still do on a regular basis. MAJOR company.) He's still not sure what's going to happen with the work thing- it's kind of out of his hands now. But I'm glad he was at least able to get his tooth worked on. Is it okay to be thankful my husband got a root canal?

As for me, I'm bummed because my camera died and I hate not being able to take pictures. :'(