Goodbye November.. and Good Riddance

November has been a very long month, but I am here to say that I have survived.  The month started off great with Disney on Ice and a little over night stay in Park City.  After that it has been kind of crazy with surgery and sicknesses.

Novembers Happy Thoughts: 

1. Disney on ice:

My sister has a friend who gave Kensie and I free FRONT ROW tickets to Disney on Ice!  Our seats were amazing and Kensie loved it and even got personal waves from characters and got to give a high five to a pirate from Peter Pan!

2. Park City:

Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law I was able to take Kensie to a condo in Park City.  We were only able to spend one night but it was a lot of fun having some special "Mommy/daughter" time with Mckensie.  All Kensie wanted to do was swim, and that's pretty much all we did the whole time.  They had an indoor pool that we played in as soon as we got there, ate dinner and then went to bed.  The next morning we had breakfast and then went to the pool again.  Kensie is definitely a water bug, she wore me out!

3.Surgery:

As you know I  had knee surgery.  Obviously this is not a pure happy thought but the happiness is in the thought that my knee will hopefully return to normal soon! Plus when the surgeon went in he did not have to remove part of my meniscus as we previously thought.  All vital structures of my knee look good (except my knee cap is a little softer than normal, but this hopefully won't cause too much trouble for me).  What they did find is that my plica had been irritated and damaged and was laying down scar tissue and so they removed it.  Dr. Cooley explained that the plica is like the appendix of the knee, you don't really need it.  I am so relieved and could not have asked for a better outcome.  The surgery was on the 18th and now I am just recovering. I had to wear the wrap in the above picture for three days.  I stayed off of my leg and used crutches the first few days but I am weight bearing and am doing pretty good now with a fabulous limp... as good as can be expected I suppose.  It is hard because I tend to over do it taking care of McKensie.

4. Thanksgiving:

The one and ONLY place I am known as "Beth"...with the Shreeve's

I had a great Thanksgiving with family and lots of food. I love my family and am so grateful for all the love and support given to me by family and friends.  I truly am blessed.

Other not so happy significant events

With all the above happiness of course some wrenches had to be thrown in and lets just say I a grateful November is coming to an end.

From the Beginning:

11/6: Kensie comes back from being with her dad for the weekend just not feeling good.  She has been complaining of a tummy ache ever since this time. 

11/19: My Emily:

It has been two years since I lost Emily.  This time has brought a lot of memories and emotions up in me; some good, some sad.  I love you Emily.

11/15: Kensie was sick and throwing up with high fevers.  This only lasted one day, but she was miserable, poor thing.

11/23: I got pink eye and had to take a wonderful trip to the instacare.

11/25: Kensie had a cough all day and started getting a fever in the evening.  I gave her some motrin and put her to bed.  A couple hours later she woke up vomiting.  She then proceeded to wake up vomiting about every hour throughout most the night. This continued throughout Saturday morning.  She was spiking high fevers all day long (up to 103) but was able to hold down some water and some soup for lunch and dinner.

11/26: Kensie woke up vomiting again at 3:00am and was still having fevers greater than 102. This time when she threw up there were little specks of blood in it.  She still had a cough and the sniffles. I decided to take her to the PCMC ER because of the blood, the fevers had been going on for more than 24 hrs, and because of her symptoms earlier in the month, what if it was all connected? She had been complaining of her tummy hurting all month.  So around 4am we took a wasted trip to the ER.  Disclaimer: I work at Primary Children's Medical Center, it is a wonderful place and when you have a sick child I would not take them anywhere else.  But it was just one of those times you get frustrated at the ER, you know?  Anyway, when we got there Kensie did not have a temp because she had tylenol and motrin in her.  They checked to see if she had a UTI, which was negative. So they just trialed her on fluids which she held down and they sent us home.  They decided her tummy was just hurting from throwing up earlier in the month and that the GI bug had killed off her enzymes which take time to replenish.  They also decided this was just a new GI bug and sent us home. The rest of the day she continued to get high fevers but she did not throw up again.  She felt miserable though and spent the whole day on the couch.  By this time she was terrified to eat because she didn't want to throw up and I had to force small amounts of food down her.

11/27:  Unfortunately this day I had to attend a 9 hr class for work that I could not miss... that is one of the hardest things to do as a mom, leave when you have a sick child at home.  Kensie did okay and survived her 2 babysitters and an accidental overdose of motrin which I discovered when I got home and called poison control... luckily it turned out ok.  But she was still sick spiking high fevers and feeling terrible with a worsening cough.

11/28: Fevers, cough, and tummy ache continue.  I took Kensie to the pediatrician who sent us to PCMC for a viral respiratory panel(VRP) and a chest x-ray.  Diagnosis: Pneumonia in her left lower lobe.  The VRP is still  pending. Oh, and I got a ticket driving to the doctors too.... GRRR. 

Kensie has now had 3 doses of antibiotic but she is still getting high fevers and is miserable.  Anyone who knows my daughter realizes that she is not taken down easily.  But right now she doesn't even have the energy to walk to the bathroom.  She begs to take naps and go to bed, and just lays on the couch all day feeling like trash complaining of a tummy ache and now has a horrible painful cough. She has no appetite and I still have to force food down her. It is so sad!  If she doesn't improve by Friday I am supposed to contact her pediatrician.  

So as you can see, this month has not been pretty.  And the last few days while caring for Kensie, I have also been sick fighting a cold.  It has been hard on my knee too, can you picture me carrying Kensie around Primary's getting the x-ray and VRP with a recent knee surgery... ya, it wasn't pretty and my knee was mad at me.  Sigh.  Oh well, I will survive.  Right now I am just worried about Kensie.  Please pray for her. 

Note to self pediatric nurse: In a child a "tummy ache" can be pneumonia... ya I knew that. Duh.  But I think we were all blind sided by her GI symptoms.  It just worries me with how long she has been complaining of a tummy ache... how long has this been festering?

 

Happy Fall!

I have been a terrible blogger the last little while.  Because of this I plan to touch on just the highlights of the last couple of months to catch you up on the life of the Stout Girls.

September

1. Friends: I had the chance to see several good friends in September. I went to a couple of
baby showers and What a Woman Wants at the expo center.  Such fun!

2. The Utah State Fair: Food, shopping, fun :-)

3. Tooth vs shopping cart= unexpected trip to the dentist:  The big event in September took place at Walmart when a shopping cart tried to take out Kensie's tooth. I had just finished paying and Kensie was a couple feet in front of me walking forward.  Just as I decided to start pushing the cart Kensie turned around and we ran right into each other.  The edge of the cart was lined up with her mouth and it knocked her front left tooth back into her mouth so it was pointing inward and not down!  I popped it back into place but it was very loose.  A trip to the dentist showed that the root and tooth were not cracked and we were instructed to only eat soup and soft food for awhile.  The gum has tightened up around her gums a little but it is still a little loose.  The dentist told me a similar story of his own daughter, they were able to save the tooth for about 8 months and then had to take it out.  I hope it will be ok, but at least it is just a baby tooth.  Who knows, maybe she will just be toothless for a couple of years until her adult tooth comes in.
McKensie's dazzling smile, still intact... hopefully it will stay that way:

So here is the best part:  Kensie was in tears just because she had to go to the dentist.  But they gave her ice cream and a toy so when we left she was grinning from ear to ear.  As we were driving home she told me to crash into the car in front of us just so she could get another loose tooth and go back to the dentist!  A little while later when I was explaining to her that she could only eat soft foods for awhile, she teared up and said, "You mean I can't eat broccoli???"

October

1.  The Birthday Girl!  

McKensie turned four in October.  It is amazing how fast time flies, I can't believe she is FOUR!!!

My master piece... yum!

2. Wheeler Farm:

3. Halloween: This Halloween was exceptionally fine :-)  We went to a Draper City Halloween event and a family party.  Kensie even went to a couple of trunk or treat ward parties with Grandparents. Good times. 

The "Cat Witch"

Our Fabulous pumpkins.  Look at my dragon... Oh ya...

Preschool Parade/Performance

 

I Survived Surgery!

Well, I haven't blogged for awhile so I owe you some updates!

First we shall start with my surgery.  My knee has been bothering me for about 8 months or so and I thought it was an old injury acting up from when I hurt my MCL back in 2004.  Well, at the end of October I went to visit Dr. Cooley, an orthopedic doctor that specializes in knees at TOSH. To make a long story short I discovered that it was not my MCL but that Dr. Cooley believed that I had torn my medial meniscus. He said that there was a small percentage that it could be something else but I would still need surgery.  SOOO, as you already know by now I had surgery yesterday and I could not have asked for a better outcome!!  My meniscus was NOT  torn and my MCL and all my cartilage looks healthy.  The actual problem was I had scar tissue built up around my knee (which Dr. Cooley had said there was a 10% chance that this could be the problem).  So because of this, surgery was in fact needed and they just went through and did a debridement of all this extra tissue that had built up that was causing all my discomfort and pain.


Now I am just recovering.  I have a dressing and ace wrap that extends from my foot to mid thigh that needs to stay on through out Monday.  I can be weight bearing but need to take it easy so they sent me home with crutches.  I have awesome pain medication that makes me kind of loopy and tired. So if my blog posts over the next couple of days don't make sense, I blame the meds :-) .   Right now I am trying to obey orders to stay off my leg for a couple of days and rest.  Besides that I am doing well. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Partial Meniscectomy

I am getting this done tomorrow.  Kind of freaks me out... yep, it does.






YIKES!  My poor knee!!!

August Happy Thoughts

1. Good Bye Summer!

2.  School:  Kensie started her second year of preschool.  Even though it is nice to have her back in school so I can get a few things done... it makes me sad! I had so much fun with her this summer, I will miss my little shadow that constantly follows me everywhere.  It is true she will only be gone for three hours on Tuesday, and Thursday... but that seems like a lot! What am I going to do when she goes to Kindergarten??!!

3. Education Week at BYU:  For the first time I was able to experiencing education week.  Wow, loved it!  I went with my mom and sister.  It was only for one day but it left me craving more.  I would love to be able to go for the whole week.  I attended several parenting classes among other things.  I want to give a big thanks to my step-sister, Kait for watching Kensie so I could go! You are wonderful!

4. Lagoon: I took Kensie to Lagoon a couple weeks ago and had tons of fun.  Besides a skinned knee and being hailed on we were still able to go on lots of rides and go to Lagoon a Beach.  Kensie's favorite part was Lagoon a Beach.  My favorite part was making funny faces while taking self portraits on the ferris wheel.

5.  Motherhood: The other day at Target Kensie found a book she wanted.  I told her she could not have it.  She then proceeded to yell at me saying, "I won't love you unless you buy me this book!!!  You should buy this so I can Love you!"  When I still said no, she said, "Then I don't love you anymore!" and then proceeded to cry and whine telling my she HAD to have it. A few days later a similar situation occurred except this time she told me that I would no longer be her Mother.  Motherhood... I feel so loved :-)

6. Eating Healthy: As you are aware this was a happy thought from last month and I set a goal for August to eat better.  I failed miserably.  I did make a few new recipes, but over all... I could try harder.  Here is to a new month! But while I am still thinking about all the yummy food I ate this past month here is a must try delicious dessert perfect for fall:

Texas Tornado

1 large can pumpkin                             1 can evaporated milk

1 cup sugar                                           1 T. cinnamon

3 eggs                                                   1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp. salt                                           1 box yellow cake mix

2 squares butter

Mix the above ingredients (except butter and cake mix) and pour into 9x13 inch cake pan. Sprinkle cake mix (dry) over the top.  Add 1/2 cup chopped nut if desired. pour 2 squares melted butter over the top. Do not mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

When I make this I usually just by the pre-spiced pumpkin, that way you don't have to add all the spices.

7. The Help:

This month I read this book.  It was wonderful, I would highly recommend it!  I am excited to go and see the movie.

8. Bear Lake:  I went to Bear Lake AGAIN this month, but this time it was only a quick day trip with my Mom, Grandma, and McKensie for my Grandma's birthday.  We stopped in Logan for lunch and ate at the Bluebird Restaurant established in 1914.  So much fun.  Then continued down the road and enjoyed yummy amazingly delicious raspberry shakes and fresh raspberry's at Bear Lake.  It was a good day. 

REALITY CHECK

It has occurred to me recently that many of you are probably sick and tired of my picture perfect happy thoughts .  Obviously, my life is not all peaches and cream, but I like to look on the bright side of things.  But for now how about we change it up for a bit and have this reality check on my life.

1. I really do love my life right now, I am the happiest I have been in a long time.  Although I would not change anything... there are times that working full time and being a single mom is REALLY hard. I hate working full time.  That sounds drastic but the most difficult thing I have to do is leave my daughter.  I am her mom, I should be taking care of her.  I am so grateful for the wonderful family members that watch her while I leave... but I want to be there more than I am.  It breaks my heart.

2.  This is the slow season at my work.  My first pay period of the month I only worked three out of my six shifts. Yikes.  Like I said, I hate working full time, but unfortunately money is a necessary evil.

3.  Kensie has been sick for over two weeks.  She is finally getting better, but it has taken a lot of sleepless nights to get to this point.

4.  Kensie is experiencing anxiety over almost everything lately.  Sleep, church, school, dance, etc, etc.  I am worried about her and don't know what's going on... I hope it is just a stage.

So there you have it.  My happiness and just a few of the realities of my life right now.

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give" 

-Winston Churchill-

July Happy Thoughts

So my monthly happy thoughts are starting to get published later and later.  Oh well, at least I am still blogging!  Here is a bit of my happiness I would like to share with you from July.  Lets just say July was an amazing month!

1. The Fourth of July!

Family, Food, Fair, Fireworks... It doesn't get better than that.  I feel so blessed to live in this great country.

 2. Optimism:  In high school a friend once told me that my life was like a soap opera.  This statement has only seemed to become more true as I have grown up.  This is not self inflicted!  It may sound silly but I am grateful for the natural optimism instilled in me that has made it possible to always look on the bright side of things, no matter what life may bring. Optimism... awesome.  (I am sure that this is easier to say now that my life has been relatively calm and uneventful for about a year now)  :-)

3. Bear Lake: Kensie's first camping trip! This month I had the chance to take Kensie camping with just me and my Dad.  So much fun! We went up Saint Charles Canyon by Bear Lake and camped for two nights. Having this one on one time with my dad around the camp fire at night was wonderful.  Kensie had a blast roasting marshmallows, hiking, exploring Minnetonka Cave, and playing in the dirt collecting rocks, flowers, sticks and just about anything else she could find.  I had one very dirty child by the time we were done!

After camping my Dad's family joined us at a cabin by Bear Lake. It was fun seeing everyone!  We spent another fun filled day on the beach and boating.  By the time we were done I took home one very exhausted child, but it was well worth it!

4.  Happy Birthday to my Mom and sister Amy! I love you guys!

5.  Jackson Hole: This month I also had a chance to go to Jackson Hole for a few days without my adorable shadow.  I love this place!  Water rafting, a nine mile hike, Grand Teton National Forest... it doesn't get better than that! Thanks Ethan for making this trip possible!

More of my Rafting Experience :-)

6. Work:  Have I mentioned that I have a great job?  I am a registered nurse at Primary Children's Medical Center on the Children's Medical Unit.  Just recently I accepted a position for a Charge 14.  What this means is that I will be over a group of PCT's (CNA's), meeting with them for trimester evaluations, yearly evaluations, etc.  I am excited for this new position and to to get more involved on the unit.

7. Eating Healthy: Am I practicing this at the moment? Well, no.  But I got this website through a work email that has tons of great healthy recipes, it even lists the nutritional facts on each recipe.  I am now making a goal to eat better and try out some of these recipes.  Please share any good recipes you may have!

Deliciously Healthy Recipes

8.

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our power to do is increased" 

President Heber J. Grant