Surgery Update

It's done! Bright and early Tuesday morning, Curtis and I checked into the outpatient surgery department at the hospital.  I was anxious, but so ready to get my ankle on the right track for healing.  Funny thing, as the nurse was wheeling me into the surgery triage room, she said "First we need you to pee in a cup to make sure you're not pregnant."  And I said "But I am pregnant" to which she replied "How pregnant?" and I said "Like, 30 weeks pregnant." Then she said "Well, I guess that's one less thing we have to do this morning!"

Since I am expecting, the anesthesiologist administered the medicine through a spinal tap just like an epideral so only my lower half was deadened.  He made it sound like I would be allert through the whole procedure, and that kind of freaked me out.  But the sleepy medicine they gave me knocked me out completely and I dozed right through it, much to my relief.  Curtis was a little dissapointed that I didn't have any "weird coming out of it" moments that he could catch on video, since I didn't have general anesthesia.  It did take about 3 times longer than expected for my legs and buttox to regain feeling, so we had to hang out in the triage room again till I was able to walk with my crutches again.  I watched 4 episodes of What Not to Wear while I waited, I love that show and it has been a long time since I have watched it, but I really just wanted to get home.  Note: sitting on a bumb that you can't feel is weird.

When I first came out of surgery my ankle felt great, but then as the feeling in my legs started coming back (starting with my feet of course) it started to HURT!  For that first day I took the maximum pain medicine I was allowed and it numbed the pain enough to be bearable but it didn't go away all together.  Luckily each day I have been able to cut back on the pain meds, I am really amazed at how much it improved in just the first 2 days.  Instead of taking 2 pillls every 4 hours, I only take one in the morning and one before bed.

Now I have a splint even more massive than the first one, looks like it's stretchy pants for me over the next several weeks.  I have experienced a lot of frustrations during these 2 weeks of being lamed.  I hate crutches, my shoulders, elbows, and wrist ache from the strain of lugging my pregnant self around.  But at the same time I am grateful for my crutches, because they make the few things I do possible.  And I don't know how people can stand to rely on motorized shopping carts on a regular basis.  Those things give new meaning to driving like a grandma, they are SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW!  I went to Target to help Curtis with some last minute shopping pre-surgery and I rode around in one of their carts, and I never want to use one of those things again.  And I don't think I am ever going to complain about TB (tired bumb) on a road trip again.  Pretty much, I can only sit in one position with varying stages of reclining.  At first my bumb wouldn't get tired till late afternoon, but now the ache sets in about 10 am. I am battling some majoe TB! And then there are a million little things that I miss, most of them involve being able to care for my boys like tuck them into bed or help them wash their hands when they come in from outside.  And I miss simple things like being able to throw a piece of paper in the garbage. 

My follow up appointment is January 9th, and I might be able to get a walking boot then so I am taking it easy in hopes that my ankle will have the best chance at healing possible so I can be ready for a walking boot in one more week.  Fingers crossed!  Till then we are greatful to have my Mom here for a week to help us out, and give Curtis a chance to prep for his next semester of teaching.  Thank you Mom for coming to our rescue!



That's My Man

Monday afternoon while the boys napped and recovered from Christmas Day, I coached Curtis through his first batch of homemade bread!  I sat in our computer chair right in the middle of the kitchen floor with my foot propped up on another chair and walked him through the process from start to finish.  He did a great job and the bread turned out perfectly.  He was a perfect student!

Skater Boy

For Christmas both boys received skate boards and elbow/knee pads.  Nathan is pretty sure he is super cool now!

Christmas 2011

Christmas morning was lovely.  The boys slept in till 7:45, which the Santa helpers in our house greatly appreciated.  It was a little strange coming into the living room with full sun pouring in our front windows, but the Chrismtas tree still looked magical.

Santa left the boys monster truck RC cars!  Needless to say, Santa hit the spot for our kidlets.  Bracken originally received the black truck and Nathan the yellow hummer, but after a couple of hours the boys decided they preferred each other's car so they made a switch.  Bracken named his hummer "Grave Digger the Grande One"!

After we had fun playing with the RC cars from Santa, we all ripped into our stockings, which is one of my favorite parts.  I really love watching everyone open their new Christmas ornaments that I lovingly picked out for them.  Nathan: football shaped bell; Bracken: sparkly airplane; Curtis: b-ball tennis and b-ball. 

Bracken was totally pumped about the candy in his stocking, it was gone in less than 2 minutes.

Bracken loved to play with everything he opened, he wasn't in any kind of hurry.  Nathan on the other hand couldn't wait to rip open every present under the tree, so stopping to play with presents before opening another really tested his patience.

After all the presents were opened, and most of the garbage picked up, we enjoyed a delicious french toast casserole for breakfast.  Then we had a few hours to relax before heading to church.  After church we headed out to Uncle Brian and Aunt Emily's house for a Kleinman Family Christmas gathering.  We had an amazing Mexican food feast and a crazy round of more Christmas presents with paper flying all over.  By the time we got home we were completely wiped out, but it was a Christmas day filled with love and family.   

Christmas Eve 2011

Pulling off Christmas was a team effort this year, and Curtis was the team captain.  He did an amazing job making sure we had everything in order to celebrate Christmas Eve with our usual flair.  He went to the store and bought all the special food we needed for our Christmas Eve feast.  He even spent the majority of the day cleaning the house so that i could relax and enjoy myself especially on Christmas Day Sunday.  He was one tuckered out Elf.  With a little ingenuity I was able to help him make the meal.  I sat down on one of the bar stools with my leg propped up on the other 2 stools with some pillows for comfort.  Curtis brought me everything I needed so I could chop and mix while he manned the stove and oven.  Nathan was in charge of getting the Christmas candy out on display, he dug out the serving dish all by himself and filled it with Reeses cups and M&Ms.

Every year we let the kidlets open a special present on Christmas Eve.  It's always a movie, that we get to watch while we eat our special feast.  This year it was Cars 2!

Nathan and Bracken requested pigs 'n a blanket as one of our menu items this year and they were great pig rollers!  The rest of our menu consisted of buffalo chicken strips, chicken nuggets, crab salad with crackers, layered salad, "bunny rabbit noodles" with peas and our favorite Alder Inn Drink (OJ with strawberry soda).

After the movie we got the boys all ready for bed, put out a special snowman shaped doughnut with a glass of milk for Santa and tucked them in with sweet dreams and hopes for a magical Christmas Morning.

Kleinman Family Newsletter 2011

Curtis and Courtney: After seven-and-a-half years of marriage, four residences, 3.5 degrees and 2.5 children, we have finally settled into a rut of work, childcare and church service. Now all that we have left to do is slowly grind out the issues that really matter, you know, like whether shoes should be worn in the house. Courtney and I have been arguing about this one for years, both of us on opposite poles of the issue. I’m pro-shoes in the house, and I think that I have the edge because I can cite many benefits—warmth, comfort, convenience when working in and outside of the house. Courtney, on the other hand, only has one argument—dirt. But, if you know Courtney, you’ll know that dirt “should be all the reason you need” to take your shoes off before coming in the house. Clean is to Courtney as home décor and insider trading are to Martha Stewart. After having Bracken, Courtney couldn’t wait to leave the sanitation of the hospital and get home “where it’s really clean”. Neither one of us is willing to give an inch on this issue, but I figure that I’m about one muddy foot-print away from lawyering-up. :0) After nearly 7 years of calling monogamy, Courtney has finally been released from playing the organ and now works with the young women. As the children grow, so does her résumé, adding addiction therapist (Figure 1 on reverse), hostage negotiator (2) and nuclear waste containment specialist (3) to her list of job skills. She has also explored the fun and challenging world of Zumba (4) this year and loves it. I keep plugging away as the ward moving coordinator/home teaching nazi Elders Quorum president. I have kept busy with responsibilities at the College and I continue to pursue another degree in education. I have truly come to a first-hand understanding of the concept, “Piled higher and Deeper” (5).

Nathan: At nearly five years old, Nathan has become increasingly consumed by two things: going “very very fast” and making people feel awkward. Awkward: “Hey, where’d your other arm go?” (Vietnam Veteran. Fry’s Food and Drug Stores. March). “How come you move around so much?” (Woman at church. Parkinson’s. June). “Wow, you’re just as big as Santa Clause!” (Woman at the bank. *Affinity for fast food. Two days ago). I’d like to say that Nathan’s awkward comments made to complete strangers pave the way for missionary opportunities, but to be honest, there’s usually no room for the gospel after Nathan starts patting down someone’s tummy and calls it a “bowl full of jelly”. The kid is gregarious in the extreme. His painful tendency to tell the truth around strangers lies in stark contrast with his new found tendency to tell fibs to his family. Yes, Nathan has discovered lying. We’ve had a number of family home evening lessons centered around the “best policy” this year. After one vivid telling of the timeless classic, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, I asked Nathan “what do we learn from this story about lying?” His answer was indicative of his proclivity for Pixar films. “They should have just trained that naughty naughty wolf to get along with the sheep and not eat them.” The metaphor didn’t make the impact we thought it would. Going fast: Nathan’s big accomplishment this year was that he learned to ride a bike without training wheels (6). That tendency to go “very very fast” has spilled over into almost every other facet of his life and has recently manifested itself in a love of monster trucks. After a day at preschool, Nathan will sit down and write random letters in succession and ask, “Dad what word did I just write?” I read it, “Nesptar”. “Ohh, that sounds like a dinosaur. Tell me a story about that.” Then I have to come up with a story with Nesptars as the main characters. You know how President Uchtdorf’s stories always eventually wind back around to include aviation in some way? Well, Nathan’s stories always must end with him behind the wheel of some monster truck, with a bed full of Monster Jam trophies in the back.

Bracken: He started out as our tender hearted little baby boy who loved to snuggle, but he’s come down with a terrible case of two-years-old. This year has seen him morph into a hard-nosed criminal, lifting toys from the nursery, street fighting and generally making destructive decisions. These decisions usually come in the form of stealing toys from his older brother (7), riding his bike in the street (8) and yelling at his parents, telling them to go to “nime out” (9). When you try to tell Bracken to clean up his act, he melts down in a fit of rage and then scours the house for something metal to hit you with. Most kids Bracken’s age are less than willing to share, but with Bracken, the situation is grave. Kids typically get angry when you take their toys and they’ll cry and fuss until you give it back to them. Giving a toy back to Bracken isn’t enough. Ohhh no! He’s not satisfied until he’s hunted you down and driven the stolen monster truck on your face. He sends the message, never steal from me again! He’s like a little toddler Godfather (10). Nevertheless, even little generals need comforting, and when he does, Bracken has a three tiered emergency response system: tier one—Mama, tier two—blanky, tier three—Daddy. When Mom and Dad can’t get him calmed down, his airplane blanket usually can. He takes that thing everywhere (11). I have visions of him turning to his blanky for comfort after doing poorly on the SAT’s. But we’ll break him of it. If not, the blanky might suffer the same fate as the pacifier (see Figure 1).

More than anything else, at this time of year, we are grateful for all of you, our wonderful family and friends. We have enjoyed so many of the Lord’s sweet blessings in 2011 and wish you all the best in 2012. May we ever-remember the reason that we celebrate this joyous season. – The Kleinman Family

*Cause not confirmed

Diagnosis

Well, it looks like surgery for me. 

Yuck!

This will be my very first surgery, but luckily it is an out patient procedure so I'll only be at the hospital a few hours.

The orthopedic specialist was hoping that surgery could be avoided due to my exsisting condition, being pregnant and all.  If I had only fractured one side of my ankle and not both, a walking boot would have done the trick.  But since I did such a thorough job falling on myself, my ankle is not stable enough to heal perfectly alligned on it's own.  I require a metal plate on the outside of my ankle and a few skrews on the inside of my ankle.  Merry Christmas to me!

The surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning at 7:30 am.  I will need to stay off of my left foot for 3 weeks, then have physical therapy to help it continue healing properly.  The upside to having the surgery over a walking boot, is my ankle will actually heal quicker than if we waited for it to heal on it's own.  But to me it still sounds like I'm in it for the long haul.

I've Been Lamed!

Oh my darn luck!

Sunday afternoon I slipped on our wet driveway right as I reached the garage door, it was literally my last step.  I was wearing heals, and my left foot hit the ground just right causing it to twist and slip. Unfortunately I came crashing down on my ankle.  I was able to get back on my feet, open the garage door and walk into the house, but the minute I sat down the swelling set in fast and furious. 

We gave it a day, but I could tell that it was more than a regular ol' sprain.  We opted for the urgent care center over the ER, and after 3 hours of waiting during various stages they discovered that I had fractured my ankle in 2 different places.  They wrapped me up really good, fitted a splint to my leg and set me up with an orthopedic specialist to determine my long term treatment needs.  Even though we were there for a LONG time, the bill of $72 (including x-rays) sure beats whatever the ER would have charged.

Now I have to keep my foot elevated and ice it every couple of hours.  And I have strict instructions to not put any weight on it at all.  So basically I spend my days propped up in bed, ordering my dear husband around and trying to help him manage his new found responsibilities of running the household while keeping the kids in check.  He has been a good sport about it and takes really good care of me, but any time he holds still he konks out. 

This afternoon I made up the groccery list for him and it was longer than any other groccery list he has had to handle before.  This was a "Courtney sized list" not the 2 or 3 item list he usally gets from me.  He was nervous about it, but I wrote the list out in order of the store isles to help him out as much as I could and he has the cell with him in case of an emergency.

I'm grateful this happened during a time when Curtis can be available to pick up my slack.  But with Christmas right around the corner we have had to really simplify our expectations for the rest of the season.  We will not be making it down to the Temple Lights this week like we had planned.  And my holiday baking will have to be put on hold, maybe indeffinately.  But now I should have ample time to address and mail out our Christmas Cards.  And another plus, I only had to shave one leg when I showered today.

Tomorrow morning we meet with the specialist so we will see what more lies in store.  Life is just a series of adjustments!

Elders Quorum Christmas Dinner 2011

Last year we hosted a couples only Elders Quorum Christmas Dinner and it was so succesful that we decided to do it again this year. 

We changed it up a bit and used 3 long tables end to end instead of several round tables.  It allowed everyone to sit together and all participate in the conversation.

We kept with the same menu, Knock-off Cafe Rio Salad.  It was a gigantic hit last year so we figured why mess with a good thing!  Besides, we might have had a small uprising on our hands if we had changed it up.  These people love their Cafe Rio Salad!

After dinner and some seriously entertaining conversation, we cleared out the tables and did a white elephant gift exchange.  There was just the right mix of good, goofy and absurd gifts to make it a memorable evening.

 

 

Gingerbread House

Last year we started a family tradition of decorating a gingerbread house for the Christmas Season.  These premade kits are amazing and make it so easy.  I found a kit that had 2 parts, a house with a tree and a barn with Santa's Sleigh, which allowed each boy to work peacefully on their own space.

Nathan really enjoys decorating the gingerbread house.  He tries his hardest to make it look just like the picture on the box.

Bracken liked licking the sugar off the candies and squirting frosting on the reindeer.

We ended up working the gingerbread house scene over a couple of days.  My boys just don't have the patience to see the project through in one sitting.

Here is the final result.  The reindeer make me giggle, they look like they have bloody noses.  Bracken was trying to make them all be Rudolphs with red frosting noses but he put too much frosting and it dripped.

They had fun doing it and I am glad that they are finished so I can have my kitchen counter back.

Downtown Lights

Prescott is Arizona's Christmas City.  Christmas decorations around town, and especially the downtown square are a big deal.  In honor of Arizona's Centenial Celebrations this year, they really went to town with the lights on the Courthouse Square. 

Every year we make it down to the square a couple of times because the boys love the lights. This year we went on the same weekend of the Aker Music Festival, and in every shop, nook and crany you can find a fine arts performance of some sort to stop in and watch. The crowds were crazy which made keeping track of Bracken a little tricky.  And of course being 2, being carried by Dad wasn't good enough he had to "walk by self".

At first all the boys wanted to do was play in the snow and ice among the lighted trees.  Nathan liked to pretend he was ice skating and Bracken ran around chasing Mom and Dad.

They also attempted sledding down tiny hills of snow. Bracken thought it was hilarious to sled on "my bum bum!"

And even a few snow balls made it into the mix of activities for the evening.

We tried to coax the boys into stopping in a few of the shops to listen to some musical performances, and they reluctangly agree to see a few.  At one point we passed a shop that had belly dancers performing.  We did't go in the shop because at that point Nathan could not be detered from seeing the Square lights, and belly dancing wasn't a huge draw to either Mom or Dad.  But later in the evening as Nathan realized that some of the performances were quite entertaining he turned around to me and said (while moving his tummy in circles) "Can we go back and see the belly dancers Mom?"  Everyone on the sidewalk around us cracked up!  We tried to hit up the belly dancers on our way back to our car, but they had already wrapped up their show.  Maybe next year!

Decking Our Halls

Every year Nathan waits anxiously for our Christmas decorations to be complete, and that means stringing up the lights.  We had to wait till enough snow had melted off our roof to avoid any major accidents.  Last Thursday was nice and sunny, and with Curtis done with his latest semester, it was the perfect window of opportunity. 

This year Nathan was allowed to help Curtis up on the roof, he thought he was pretty big stuff.

Kitchen Helpers

In our house overly ripe, black bananas are a wonderful thing, because that means it's time for banana muffins.  Nathan and Bracken ADORE banana muffins.  Nathan enjoys being part of the baking process from start to finish, Bracken prefers to help out by licking the spoons clean.  If I were given the opportunity to bake them up on my own, I could get it down in a fraction of the time with half the mess.  But this way is deffinately more fun.

On The Mend

Right around Thanksgiving, our family was hit with a nasty virus of the head cold variety.  We pulled out all the stops trying to get everybody better as quickly as possible; humidifier, vicks rub, saline nasal mist, chicken noodle soup and lots of REST.  Unfortunately for Bracken, he suffered the most.  After about a week we all were mostly better, but then last weekend Bracky took a turn for the worse again.  His cough came back, but it was different and more severe.  When his appetite started to slide Sunday, I decided it was time to take him into the doctor.

His blood oxygen level was lower than normal so the doctor suggested we dust off our nebulizer and start him on breathing treatments.  The last time we used the nebulizer, Bracky was 3 months old and he did NOT like using it.  But now he doesn't mind the treatments as long as he can do it by himself while he listens to a story or watches a show.  He is all about being Mr. Independent.

The doctor was more concerned with how fast Bracken was breathing.  They ordered chest x-rays so for Family Home Evening we headed to the hospital.  He was super brave and looked so tiny sitting on the very large x-ray table.  They took a front shot and a side shot, the techs were great with Bracken and he cooperated like a champ.  I wish I had thought to bring my camera because it's not every day your 2 year old gets x-rays.

The x-rays confirmed that he had a low level of pneumonia in his lungs so the doctor called in a prescription for amoxicillin.  After a few days of breathing treatments and medicine Bracken was back to his old self again.  Thank goodness for modern medicine. 

Tis The Season

Another Christmas Season is upon us, and it is in full swing for our family.  I am once again accompanying the Stake Christmas Concert and have been busy learning the music and attending rehearsals for the past 4 weeks.  We put up our Christmas decorations a few days after Thanksgiving, mostly because Nathan wouldn't hear of waiting one more week.  He adores Christmas time, and all that goes with it.  One of his favorite traditions is our advent calendar, because each day has a special Christmas activity along with a little piece of candy.  We have also had a recent snow fall, which always adds to the magical feeling of the season.  It was lovely snuggling on our couch with our twinkling Christmas lights on, and watching the snow fall gently to the ground.

This past Saturday we attended our ward Christmas party.  This year they switched it up from the usual "Breakfast With Santa" to "A Night in Bethlehem" and it was a fantastic change.  Everyone really enjoyed the Bethlehem market and Nativity program.  We helped man the Elder's Quorum Cheese shop, which Curtis lovingly named "Ye Olde Lactose Shop: It's Dairy Good!"  It was also really fun to dress up in period appropriate clothing.  Nathan LOVED being a Bethlehem boy for one evening and Bracken even liked his costume, though at first he wasn't thrilled with the idea.

Every family was given a pouch with coins in it to buy their dinner at the market and pay their taxes.  Nathan thought it was extremely cool.  He kept coming back to me for another coin to go and buy a glass of grape juice, or a little trinket from the toy shop.  It was a very successful ward party. 

Sunday we watched the Christmas Devotional, which for me is the ultimate Christmas kick-off event.  The boys were fascinated with the "forest of giant Christmas trees" behind Pres. Monson. All in all it has been a festive first week of December, and it is only the beginning.