Back to Salt Lake We Go.....

and we are not actually all that happy about it. I apologize now that once again all I can report on is Brooklyn and our latest adventures, but truth be told I have nothing else to talk about and this means I only have to repeat what is happening with her only 50 times rather than 100. I also know that my family members who read this who don't live close appreciate the update.

Anyway, if you'll remember the last post excitedly explaining how things were falling easily into place and Brooklyn was going to a local Orthopedic Surgeon who said "these things happen all the time and it will be no problem to fix." Well it turns out they don't happen all the time, and apparently it is not that easy to fix! Unfortunately we found this out 4 hours into our doctor visit. The short version is that we went to a doctors office in Blackfoot and saw the Surgeon for about two minutes before he took us across the street and introduced us to a Physical Therapist who was going to make some sort of a brace for Brooklyn. So first we sawed off the other cast that was miraculously still on (but in the entirely wrong position), only to find that her foot was covered in blisters and dark black and purple sores. The other foot had also somehow developed the same sores even though the cast had fallen off the night before. So the P.T. worked for 4 long hours trying to create some sort of a casting/bracing device for Brookyn's foot, telling us along the way that he had never done something like this before! I was thinking, well of course you haven't your a Physical Therapist, this is the surgeons job! He even had to cut holes all around the casts so the sores on Brooklyn's feet wouldn't get any worse. So, we walked out of the office 4 long hours later with a pair of removable casts that although were made with the best of intentions, do not work for even 5 minutes until her foot is sideways again.

On our way home we finally decided that if we wanted it done right we had no choice but to go back to SLC. We finally spoke to the Surgeon there who told us that in order for the casts not to fall off he had to cast her past the knee. Jonny was the one who relayed the message to me thinking nothing of it and thinking it sounded like a great idea. Well I freaked out thinking that we have waited two long years for our little girl to finally gain some sort of independence and now that she is crawling they are going to put these stupid things up to her armpits! Talk about frustrating the already frustrated little girl. So we are heading down to SLC Sunday night and will see the doctor Monday morning. I may have no choice but to have the casts go past her knees but I'm not going down without a fight.

In the meantime Brooklyn is happy as a clam unaware that her Mommy is going to have a nervous breakdown and she actually likes talking about all the Ouchies on her feet and loves the sympathies she recieves from others. She shrieks with joy when we tell her that she is getting another pair of pink "shoes" put on. If only we could have the patience and forgiveness and positive out look as these little ones. I guess innoncence is bliss afterall.

Brooklyn's New Shoes

Before I begin I would just like to say that I had taken the cutest pictures of Brooklyn before and after her surgery that have somehow gotten deleted while I was trying to post them. I am so mad but I guess I will just have to take some pictures the next few days to show her cute little casts.
Well Brooklyn's surgery was yesterday and went much smoother than I had anticipated. We got to Salt Lake early enough that we took Brooklyn to the park to play, then we played in the pool at our Hotel for a while which Brooklyn just loved. Of course the morning of the surgery they had us be there first thing in the morning only to sit in the waiting room for two hours but that's typical I've learned. They gave Brooklyn a sedative about an hour before the surgery so when the doctors came and took her from me she was so happy and relaxed she didn't care who was holding her which never happens! Jonny and I actually left the hospital and grabbed some breakfast and enjoyed eating outside without too much of a worry which was nice. The surgery only lasted about 1 hour and Brooklyn came out wearing the cutest pair of bright pink casts. When she finally woke up I showed her her feet and she looked at them and said "shoes!" Lately she has been getting mad at me when we are out and about and I haven't put shoes on her, so now she has permanent "shoes" for a while.

This morning I was thinking that this whole surgery was so easy (on both Brooklyn and me!), and that I was so grateful and wondered why I work myself up so much worrying all the time. Well not long after I thought this, I looked at Brooklyn's casts and noticed that one of her feet was in the compleltely wrong position because it was falling out of the cast. The whole point of this surgery was to cut her heel cord and put her foot in a normal, flat position, for the next four weeks so when we take the casts off she will be able to stand and begin learning to walk (hopefully). Well when I saw that stupid thing falling off I almost had a heart attack and ended up spending about three hours on the phone hoping to talk to someone other than an answering machine in Salt Lake and at local doctors offices here to try to figure out what to do. Finally my mom remembered that her neighbor of 16 years is an orthopaedic surgeon so she knocked on his door and he said that these casts fall off all the time that he would be happy to see Brooklyn first thing in the morning even though he isn't working. Yay! See, another example of how I stress myself out for no reason!

A Wonderful Week of Progress

Against my own will I have decided to take a short break from school. Since Brooklyn was born I have continued to go to school full time which has been very trying and also very rewarding. My goal has been to just finish and get done as quickly as possible so I can concentrate on Brooklyn,but now that doesn't seem to be happening as soon as I had hoped. I was going to take summer school full time and then do my student teaching, but I felt a little too stressed and decided that my little girl has a lot going on and may need me a little more now.
I'm not sure if excited is the right word, but Brooklyn is getting surgery on her feet this coming Wednesday which is a great milestone for us. Her feet have become too crooked to fit in her braces so we haven't made any progress for awhile with her standing, and the doctors agree that she is ready to understand the concept of walking. Just the past few days she has done something rather remarkable. She has been trying to pull one of her legs up to stand (like the position when someone proposes on one knee.) Her therapist and I have tried teaching her this for a while and of course Brooklyn does it when she is ready! Her legs lack the feeling and strength to support her and she ends up almost standing on her ankle bones (it is so gross to watch!) and when they start collapsing she looks at me like, what's wrong with these floppy things??? She gets pretty frustrated which is great motivation for her to try harder. I do have to admit when she gets upset at her little body that I imagine must feel like a trap at times my heart breaks and I wish it was me. Okay, I don't wish it was me. I wish it was Jonny. Just Kidding! She has also told us on numerous occassions that she has to go potty. Usually this occurs almost to the minute that she has to be cathed. This is another little miracle that has occured this last week. We also should be getting her her wheelchair soon which I fully plan on calling it her "Bike". This will help her explore so much more and give her more independence. I just might I have to keep an eye on her then!
I guess I share this little story because I am so proud of my little Brooklyn and excited to start this next chapter. Once her feet are fixed I know we will really see what she is capable of. I am sad that she will not be able to swim for most of the summer (which is one of her few pleasures because she just gets to sit and splash for hours!) because of her casts, but we will just have to have one heck of a pool party the end of July!

We Survived!

Well we did it! The Marathon was yesterday and it actually was so much fun! We all spent the night in Utah since we had to catch a bus to take us up the Ogden Canyon at 5:00, so we had to wake up at 4:00. This was probably the worst part. I was wondering how they expect anyone to run even one mile under these conditions! I'm still not sure why they make you catch a bus this early because all two thousand of us who were running the half-marathon sat around a couple fires for an hour and a half waiting for it all to start at 7:00. I was wondering what I had gotten myself into and dreading the 13 mile descent. I was pretty sure we had gotten on the wrong bus in the beginning because it just kept driving higher and higher up the canyon and I thought it definitely dropped us off at the 26 mile mark instead of the 13!

Once it finally started it was so much fun! I couldn't believe the excitement. I didn't even turn my music on for a couple of miles because it was so beautiful and there were so many people along the way cheering us on. My sister surprised me and ran with me starting at the 5 mile mark which made it so much more fun and much easier. I felt great the whole run up until the last mile and then my hip hurt so bad my whole leg was hard to move but I was pretty sure if I stopped I wouldn't be able to run again, but somehow I finished. Since I run pretty slow I was met by Jonny, Kody, Brian, and my Mom who drove down with Brooklyn. About two minutes after I crossed the finished line I was hobbling over to the sidelines and heard the crowd going crazy and I thought, well they sure didn't cheer like that for me! But I realized that the first person to run the full Marathon was finishing. Nothing like taking my glory only minutes after I finished!

I do have to admit that we are somehow planning our next half-marathon even though we can barely walk and the thought of actually going down or up stairs brings tears to our eyes, and we have had numerous arguments about who has to pick Brooklyn up! Then again, maybe we should only make this a yearly tradition........

It's Hard Being an Athlete

I haven't told many people but this coming Saturday I am running in the Ogden City Marathon. I feel a little embarrassed to be doing it, but I did want it to come as a surprise when my friends heard that I killed over on mile 10 in the Ogden Canyon (we are only running half the marathon). My youngest brother Brian is leaving on May 21st for his mission and he came up with this bright idea about three months ago. He thought it would be something fun we could all do together. Let me fill you in on the "Fun" we all have been having the past couple months.

First of all I am not doing this entirely alone. My sister Andrea and her Husband Kody, Brian, and Jonny are all the idiots that signed the fifty dollar entrance fee. At first we were a little nervous and entirely out of shape. That first month we would sit around talking about how far we were running and how good it felt to begin getting into shape. We all went out and bought new shoes and began calling ourselves (joking of course) athletes. We would often start sentences like, " well now that I'm an athlete...." or "since becoming a marathon runner......" We all found that it was beginning to be a great bonding experience and pitied anyone who chose not to join us in our new found hobby.

Month two was a little different. We found that it was becoming a little more difficult to find time to juggle running. Andrea and I always ran together and would often have to wake up early to go first before I husbands could go. This made us a little grouchy but found that running early was really quite beautiful. By this time Kody had what looked like something that used to be a blister but blew up to be something much more disgusting on his foot and couldn't run for almost a week. Andrea began feeling a sweet little warm feeling in her shins and figured it was just pesky little shin splints, and Jonny was convinced that the new shoes he bought made him get the flu (seriously). Though we were getting a little weary of the time our running was taking and the little pains it was causing our bodies, we just kept thinking of how proud we would feel crossing the finish line with our dear loved ones waiting to greet us.

Month three which we are currently in couldn't end quickly enough. Our outdoor runs have been completly miserable due to the fact the wind hasn't stopped blowing for months and snow has even fallen during the month of May. Andrea and I can no longer run in the morning because we would have to wake up at 5:00 to make enough time for our Ibuprofen to kick in before we can even take one step. Andrea may not even be able to run a single mile of this stupid race becuase not only does she have the worst shin splints known to man, but she also has a bad hip that perscription drugs cant even dull the pain to. Brian, the genius who got us into this mess, hasn't ran in weeks because his ankles hurt too bad. Kody and Jonny just got kinda sick of running and can't even find their running shoes anymore (Jonny is actually staying away from his so he doesn't get the flu before the big day). Though my shins feel like someone has taken a baseball bat to them most of the time I have still tried to keep running as much as I can without my sister as my sidekick, but mostly I just sleep in now and dream of the days when I would eat donuts in the morning while watching exercise shows.
Wish us all luck! Yay for running!
P.S. I'm looking for a new running partner so let me know if there are any takers. The position should go quickly.

Check out my Slide Show! My favorite picture is the very last one.

Brooklyn Turns Two!

Getting Hugs from my favorite cousin

I Love Eating with My Grandpa Matt!

I can't believe how fast the last two years have gone. I got these adorable pictures taken by Jonny's cousin Holly and couldn't believe how big she looked. I still think of her as my little baby but she is becoming such a big girl.
Brooklyn loves Dora the Explorer, or 'Ahhh La' as she calls her, so we had a big Dora birthday party. She had so much fun having all her cousins and aunts and uncles over. Of course her favorite part was eating the cake! She is a very spoiled and very loved little girl!