School Days

This morning I dropped Kade off for his first full day of kindergarten! 

 It was a bittersweet experience, probably more than when I dropped Blake and Trevor off for their first days since Kade is a little bit younger than they were when they started kindergarten and he's always been my sweet little buddy while they were at school.  I almost teared up when I saw him standing in line with other kindergartners who were all three or four inches taller than him! 

I figured it was time to post all of the first day photos since the big boys started school a few weeks ago.

Blake age 10 (5th Grade)

Trevor age 8 (4th Grade)

Kade age 5 (Kindergarten)

This was his "happy thoughts" face.  He insisted that the sun was in his eyes, even though it was behind him!


Three cheers for the first day of school!
If I hadn't had to drive to Franklin to meet with a surgeon (more on that later) right after I dropped the boys off, my sisters and mom and I would have done our annual 1st Day of School Luncheon.
 We postponed it to Monday if anyone wants to join us!

Older and Wiser...Ok, Mostly Just Older.

I am going in for another MRI tomorrow. 

 That makes three for this year; plus two CT scans, two chest x-rays, an ultrasound, a hysteroscopy, a spinal tap and a partridge in a pear tree. I am pretty sure that whomever handles our account at Blue Cross Blue Shield cries whenever they see my name pop up.  Up until the past few weeks (when I discovered that we have hit our out of pocket max for me for the year) whenever I saw any mail come through with my name on it, I wanted to cry too!

I never really posted about what we discovered is wrong with my right hip, and since I know you are all on the edge of your seats to find out, and since I am basking in the near silence of naptime, I will put you all out of your misery and talk about me for a while.  

You may recall that I was whining several months ago about a pain that I'd had in my right side for a few years.  Long story short, two months, two doctors, two MRIs, six sessions of physical therapy and lots of pain meds later and I was diagnosed as having an impingement and a labral tear in the cartilage of my hip joint.  At least, that is what he *thinks* it is.  My first MRI was done without contrast so it doesn't show the tear very well.  Tomorrow I will go in and they will shoot contrast into my hip joint with a needle and next week I will go back to see my orthopedist to see if that is what it really is.  

An impingement is basically a deformity in my hip joint that means it is shaped like an oval instead of being round like most people.  I was probably born with it.  There are many ways I could have gotten the tear, I think it was probably from disc golf, but we aren't sure since it took so long to diagnose it.  

When I first got diagnosed I was very angry.  I was told that they usually don't see injuries like this in 30 year old women, but rather much older people or professional athletes.  When I looked it up I came across several message boards of people who have it and their ages are almost always over 60.

 I was also told that this can lead to very bad arthritis and hip replacement down the road. 

 "Why me?" I thought.  

I spent many hours in self pity as I thought about all of the things that I can't do anymore.  I can no longer get out and run around with my kids in the yard, I can't take them on hikes at the nature trail without pain, I can't sit on the floor with them and build things out of blocks, and it hurts to dance, which is something I love to do.  My hip is very stiff and sore, and sometimes it gets a "hitch" in it that keeps me from being able to move it until I can work out the kinks. 

 I could feel bitterness creeping into my soul as I made mental lists of things that I can no longer do without pain.

Then one day I had an "aha" moment.  

"Why NOT me?" I thought to myself. 

Everyone has a cross to bear.

I can't think of one person who is not weighed down by some kind of "impingement".  That is why we were put here on Earth for crying out loud!  It is what we choose to do and who we choose to be despite these roadblocks that help us to develop and get back to our Heavenly Father in (hopefully) one piece.  

When I chose to look at the bright side of the trials that I was dealt, I started to find the blessings in my life. 

I have four beautiful children who are smart and funny and who still give me hugs in public!  I have a husband who works hard to provide for us and who has been so good to me when I can't drag myself in to make dinner.  We have been waiting on this job transfer to Chattanooga for over a year, but if we had moved a year ago I would not have had so much family around to help me when I needed it.  

The Lord has perfect timing!  

I have started to look for as many opportunities to serve others as I can find.  I have found that my own problems are so small in comparison to what others are dealing with.  It felt good to test my physical limitations when I got out and laid landscaping cloth at the church and when I lead 14 cub scouts around Barfield Park for a week during Day Camp!  

I love this passage in Matthew, chapter 11:

28 ¶^aCome unto me, all ye that ^blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you ^crest.

 29 Take my ^ayoke upon you, and ^blearn of me; for I am ^cmeek and^dlowly in ^eheart: and ye shall find ^frest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is ^aeasy, and my burden is light.

So tomorrow I will go in for another MRI.  

I am scared to death of having a shot put directly into my hip...but I will grin and bear it because 

1) I won't have to pay a dime for it since we've hit our out of pocket max and 2) See #1.  

Someone asked me a while back if I could just go to a chiropractor to take care of this. When I asked my doctor if this injury is something that will eventually heal on its own he told me that no, it won't, because there is no blood supply to the hip joint.  Blood is necessary for the body to heal itself.  A chiropractor may be able to adjust the hip joint, but he wouldn't be able to help it to heal.  I have already been adjusted at physical therapy and while it has helped, it hasn't gotten rid of the problem. 

My doctor told me a few months ago that there is a surgery that they can do to shave the tear and repair it, but it will put me off my feet for at least six weeks.  Six weeks of chasing Sophie around while on crutches does not sound fun at all...but if it means that I can actually chase her around eventually then it may just be worth it!

There are only two surgeons in the area who do the surgery, and both of them are in Nashville.  

Yet another reason that I am grateful TVA has kept us waiting for this transfer!  The ball has started rolling on that front as well.  Chad is on his way to Chattanooga for his interview tomorrow, and we will hopefully have a better idea of a time frame for the move after that.  He may have to stay over there several nights a week until we can find a place and move the whole family, or we may just rent a place and build a house on Signal Mountain...we are still trying to figure it all out.  

So fingers (and toes and eyes) crossed for tomorrow!  I'll let you know how it goes...

Happy (Late) Birthday Kade!

Ooops!  

This summer has been a "bit" crazy for me, and I realized this morning that I haven't posted since Fathers Day...which means I completely missed posting about Kade's 5th birthday!  It was July 15th, so I'm less than a month late posting about it.  Yay me!

I was a little worried that I might have forgotten to take pictures of him that day too...but then I went looking and found these:

Mr. Cool all ready to head to Church on his birthday.

The simple yet complicated cake that I slaved over....that didn't taste too great since I forgot to buy a mix and went with "the best vanilla cake recipe ever" NOT!  Pinterest, my faith in you was shaken that day to be sure.


Since Kade shares a birthday with my super cute niece, Ashleigh, we did a combined birthday dinner at my sister's house.  It was great fun.

Kade is such an important part of our family.  He is sweet and mellow (usually) and extremely funny (sometimes without meaning to be).  Of all of my kids he stayed a baby the longest, and still loves to climb on my lap to be cuddled.  Usually this doesn't last too long since Sophie comes and pushes him off, but it is nice while it lasts!   I went into Primary to hear him give the prayer a few weeks ago and had to stop myself from laughing out loud when he prayed that "Daddy won't fall off the roof again, and Mommy will feel better".  This has been the recurring theme of his prayers since Chad fell off the roof in June and I have been sick most of the summer (those two things deserve posts of their own!).  So far, I am feeling better and Chad hasn't fallen off the roof again, so I am grateful for the faith and dedication of my little five year old!  

He is starting kindergarten in a few weeks, we go in for his screening tomorrow.  He told the eye doctor a few weeks ago that he can read...but really he just recognizes most of his letters.  He can read and write his name and also recognizes the names of everyone in the family, as well as write "mom" and "dad".  

We have the option of putting him in Pre K but Chad and I have talked about it a lot and feel that he is ready to be in kindergarten this year.  He is far ahead of where Trevor was going into kindergarten (and he was a lot older) and he seems to be ready emotionally.  

He is so small for his age though it seems like this came too fast!  

He was 33 pounds and 39 inches tall at his 5 year old check-up.  He still wears a 4T in most clothes and size 9 shoe.  He is definitely smaller than the other boys were at this age.  He got a bike for his birthday and it only took him a few times riding it to get the hang of the pedals...we need to work with him a little bit and we'll be able to take the training wheels off.

Happy Birthday Kade!  

Our family wouldn't be the same without you!



I promise to be around more...I have so many posts to catch up on!