VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!

For those of you that are daily bloggers and occassionaly check any of the people's blogs on my friends' list, I'm sure that you have probably heard all you can about our trip to Vegas that we got home from about a week ago, but how often do four bestfriends get to leave their kids and husbands home to go on vacation together? Well in five years since we have all been married, it has NEVER happened, hence our excitement.

So the four of us loaded up my friend Jessica's Honda and took off to Vegas. Actually everyone had it pretty easy since Jess and I had at least another three hours added to our trip since we started in Pocatello, but none the less the drive was fun. What? no screaming kids? No one yanking the daylights out of their carseat straps yelling "OUT! Mamma! Out!" No one had to get out two hours into the trip because they decided they were hungry, or bored, or had to pee. (actually they tried, but I wouldn't stop the car until we were almost out of gas! I'm alot of fun, can't ya tell?)

Poor Jonny had to work every day at the Bookstore, while juggling his Realtor duties and playing full time dad. While I was gone he took Brookyln to the eye doctor and found out that she needs eye surgery, her Go-Go- Boots fell off the day after I left so he spent a day dealing with that (we have since gone back to SLC and got her fixed finally!). To say the least he looked completely trashed when I got home and perhaps I gained a little more respect from him, if that is possible :)

We loved our hotel we stayed at and tried to relax as much as we could. We tried for three days to get tickets to Mamma Mia, only to be told each day that they would have plenty the next day, so on Friday we excitedly asked to purchase four tickets to the show only to be told that it doesn't play on Fridays! We were pretty mad, but got tickets to the Knights show at Excalibur. We also realized that we are all pretty bad drivers, and have poor sense of direction without our husbands around. Anyway, I'll let the few pictures that I actually took speak for themselves........

Basking in the sun in the Lazy River. We decided that some pervert got the idea to create see through tubes. I posted this picture small so you can see very little of the rest of us through the tubes! After going around the river for about two hours poor red-headed, light skinned Keri was left with the worst sun burn ever. Not quite the way to start out the trip. We got told that we resembled the four girls off Sex and the City. I was the only sinner who had even seen the show so it meant very little to Jessica, Angela, and Keri.

This is how Angela and I spent most of the trip....with our noses buried in a book. We perferred doing this to shopping with Keri and Jessica for SEVEN STRAIGHT HOURS!!!

Although as you can see, we did manage a few hours of shopping when we weren't reading. This is the reason Jonny told me that he thought it would be "fun" for me to go work at Costco when it arrives at the end of the summer. Sorry Jonny, this is my job. And no, I am not pregnant but I agree that it appears that I am based on this picture......

And Here we are testing our line dancing skills at Stoney's. We are not the brightest since we decided to pose in front of the Bull (that I successfully rode), for a picture only to realize that we covered the whole thing up with our cute little pose. It wasn't until later that we wondered why we didn't pose ON the bull......what a great idea. I'd also post a picture of me riding the bull but Keri was the photographer who got pictures of me and NOT the bull while I was riding it. It's OK Ker, I forgive you. I just know not to ask you to take pictures again.

Here we are at the show at Excalibur. That's our waiter sticking his bald head in the picture behind us. He would give us a look of sympathy when the drunk brothers next to us would order another beer or two. I'm not sure who was more entertaining, them or the show!

See ya in Vegas next year Girls!!!

Go-Go-Boots for Brooklyn

Too Stinkin' Cute!!!!

Well we finally got new casts on Brooklyn today. We found someone in town who specializes in casting people who have sores on their feet so it worked out pretty good. Of course we are still terrified that they may rub or the positioning of her foot may slip, but at least it is something. These casts are closed at the toe so we really can't see if her foot is slipping which is a little scary.

I also decided that these casts look more like Go-Go-Boots than casts. I think Brooklyn actually looks quite trendy! This came at good timing because after all the stress the last few weeks I am definitely ready for my trip to VEGAS with four of my very best friends (there are a few friends that I wish could make it but can't :( . I am sure they are all ready to kill me because I have not been able to give them a definite date that we can finally go until today so we are off tomorrow evening, yay!

Enjoying a good book before bed!

Cute Brookie

Well not much has changed this last week, but I have gotten pretty sick of getting onto my blog and seeing the picture of Brooklyn's gross feet and figured I should probably put something a little more positive on my blog this month! So I decided to just post a couple of my favorite pictures of Brooklyn. In doing this I realized that I definitely need to take more pictures of Brooklyn and also more pictures with me or Jonny with her. I don't think I have one recent picture of all of us so I guess I will make that my new goal.

Brooklyn's first time in her car seat going Bye Bye!

I love this picture because it is one of the few pictures that shows her thick dark hair that she was born with before it started falling out thus becoming the comeover, followed by the bald spot in the back that just grew in about 6 months ago, followed by the afro in the back that never combs out no matter how hard we try.

Brookie at 6 months old

I love her big brown eyes in this picture with her little tweety bird mouth that is so small! And who could miss the three chubby rolls on her arms!

One Year Old.

Her left ear used to stick out quite a bit which was only brought to our attention when we got this picture taken. I love this picture so much because of that and also since her ear no longer pokes out (probably a good thing in the future!), and I also got my one year pictures taken in this dress and look identical to her.

Posing with one of her favorite cousins Mya.

Brookie's Poor Feet

Can you believe that these terrible sores happened in just one day? And they are five days old so they have even healed a little bit. I guess we know for sure now that she can't feel her feet which of course in an instance like this is good. She posed so good for these pictures and even after wanted us to take more pictures of her "ouchies." When we showed them to her on the camera (actually she screamed until we gave her the camera!) she got sad and stuck out her bottom lip and said oweee mama. Oweee dadda. She sure knows how to get sympathy! I was putting bandaids and cream on her feet last night and she looked up and me with her big brown eyes and said in the cutest most sincere voice, "thank you mamma." How lucky am I to have such a sweet little girl!

Well here is the shortened version of our weeklong saga that unfortunately did not end today......

We went to SLC last night and stayed the night at my aunt's house and then went to our Doctor's appointment this afternoon. After waiting for over an hour for the doctor he finally took us back and poked at Brooklyn's feet for a minute and told us he would NOT be able to re-cast her feet because the sores were too bad (hmm, do you think he could have let us know this beforehand?). We kind of stood dumbfounded (even my mom who decided to join us and she is very rarely speechless!), thinking that this was some sort of a joke due to the in depth conversation Jonny had with the doctor about the condition of her feet just days before. We could tell the doctor felt stupid and though we didn't give him a piece of our mind like we wanted, we could tell that he knew he screwed up. So, after another 5 hour roundtrip drive, we get to go back up on Wednesday to recast Brookie's feet after the sores have healed. Yay!

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!