One Year Ago Today...

Alex's brother Doug passed away.

This is a very sad day and we are trying to fill it with Happy Memories.

Memories of:
Doug as best man at our wedding and Alex his best man at his wedding.
Doug teasing.
Doug taking the boys to jump the spill way in his Monster Truck.
Doug holding Justin for the 1st time and making him look even smaller than he was.
Doug so proud, standing up in church to be Justin's Godfather.
Nic standing proud and sad as an honory poll bearer at Doug's funeral.

We miss you Doug and you are in our thoughts. Soon this new little miracle will join our family and he will honor you with his name - with a twist :)

We have a date - for a cast removal that is...

May 17th is the wonderful day!

And Justin is counting down the days!!! ~ He can't wait!

The Garden is growing...

I'm not sure what we did right but our garden seems to be growing wonderfully. From the pictures you can tell we don't have the best soil. The landscapers brought us 5 yards of fill dirt and our finances were low so we didn't even mix any of the good stuff in with it. We'll add some good dirt for fall planting. Alex did give it a good spray of Miracle grow and that's all...
The landscaper very nicely placed a drip line every 10 inches in the garden and Alex attached a soaker line to them. The garden system goes off every morning automatically. Love it!

Here are the 2 rows of Carrots sprouting up. Can't wait to have yuumy fresh sweet carrots! These are also the dogs favorite treats :)


Green Beans - waiting for these to get a little taller to start winding up the lattice.


Technically not in the garden but couldn't resist showing you the tiny green buds from the Orange Tree, this is the start of a Yummy fresh orange!


Pumpkins. Will we have one big enough to carve?


Shallots. We only had 3 poke through but I love these in salads and cooking sooo much!


Cucumbers - Wow tons grew! Waiting for them to grow a little more so we can wind them up the lattice.


Lettuce - We planted 2 varieties. They are both growing good. Fresh lettuce from the garden - is your mouth watering yet?


Tomato's - 2 pictures here. We have 4 tomato plants. One of them is HUGE! The other one has a beautiful tomato growing - actually between all 4 plants I think we have a total of about 6 juicy yummy tomato's so far- BLT's anyone????



Pepper's - Well the pepper plants seem to be lacking a little in growth but they do have buds and the one pepper is still holding it's own.


Sunflowers - growing like weeds!


Watermelons - A lot of the seeds sprouted... Now lets see if we get yummy watermelons to eat! Hey, how did that sunflower seed get planted in a watermelon mound? Silly!

Blue cast pics

1 Week Cast Check

Yesterday was not a fun day...

Justin got his xray and they moved us to the room to wait for the Dr. I could hear them outside the door and knew something was wrong. The computer that the xrays pull up on was right outside Justin's room.

One bone looks great and in the right spot. The 2nd bone had moved! UG! The Ped. Ortho did say that it can happen. The bones are not screwed and there's no rod so they can still move in the cast. But, he felt that screwing or using a rod was not a good option as J would have to have another surgery to take out and he is so young and has so much growing to do.

So, they marked J's cast and then cut it. They then took pliars - yes litteraly! and pulled it apart and put in a wedge to push his bone back and hold it in place. They then taped it there and rexrayed. The bone looked good so they then put another cast over the other cast and the wedge. During the cutting, pliars and wedge procedure Justin was really wimpering! The Ortho asked if he was in pain and he said no not really and he asked if J was scared and he said YES! My poor kid!

The Ortho then told Justin to be still at home - video games and TV! He is so... hard to keep still! He's 5! Even with no tramp, bike, skateboard etc he still plops on the couch runs into things etc. Ahhhh.

We go back in one week and are praying for no bone movement this time!!!

By the way this time he chose a blue cast!

And we have a Cast... A glow in the dark cast

J got his cast yesterday. His bones are looking pretty straight and his incision is healing nicely. The Ortho was really happy about how his arm looked. Dr happy = Mom happy!
Justin is not so happy. His cast is too heavy, his fingers are swollen, cast up to arm pit. I guess I can't blame him but I'm sure after a few days he will be use to the cast and maybe forget it's there!
The good news is that he should only have to wear it for 6 weeks. It should be off prior to summer vacation!

cards and a package

Justin has been a lucky boy with lots of cards from friends at school, Heidi's children made him cards and brought them over on Sunday, cards from CT and today a box arrived with a special build a bear with a hospital gown and an arm in a sling. Of course he came with a change of clothes - a skater outfit complete with slip on shoes and a skateboard from his Aunties and Gramdma and Grandpa. Thanks everyone for making J feel so special.

Sweetness

Last night Kevin from Justin's class and his mom stopped by. They had J's HW, class newsletter and a letter from each child in Justin's class. Justin was so excited to see Kevin and LOVED reading the letters - we've read them 3 times now!

This morning before recess his teacher called and she had each child talk to Justin and they said: they missed him, or get better soon, or they loved him, or was he ok. It was just the sweetest thing to listen to these little 5 and 6 yr. olds be so caring.

Justin said after, "they must really love me! I miss them!"

I've said this before and I'll say it again and again - he has the very best Kindergarten teacher. She is amazing with the kids and when you watch her teach and interact with them you can see the love she has for them radiate out!

Hi Little Man

You are 22 weeks today and getting bigger everyday. Mostly I feel you move and kick below my belly button but yesterday the Dr said you are in for a growth spurt and I should feel you up in my ribs really quick! Your brother, Justin went to the Dr with me and heard your heart beat. He already loves you so much and can't wait to play with you!

And life goes on!

It is so funny how trauma affects kids and adults.

I am still stressed. Not sleeping well, any move Justin makes scares me.

Justin is feeling much better! I think sometimes he forgets his arm is in a sling - except when he can't open a PB cup. But he's already starting to move more then I would like. He tried to go up the stairs 2 at a time and was going to climb on his bunk bed. Ahhh! I'm still trying to recover and he's already forgot!

Now if I can just keep him still and entertained enough until Thursday and pray his arm is ok enough for a hard cast!!!

Bones Broken and a Puncture - My poor Baby!

One of my worst fears came true! I've always been warned about broken bones - it seems that as a mother of boys it is part of the "what to expect". So I guess I have been initiated...

Thursday night I heard: Justin crying and each cry seemed to intensify and Nic say, "Justin r u OK?" Then Nic screamed my name - my senses went on high alert and I ran! I saw my little 5 yr. old laying on the floor his arm was looking really wierd but what grabbed most of my attention was the stream of blood shooting straight out of his arm into the air!

I am not good in emergencies AT ALL, I really fall apart! I did have enough sense to put my thumb over the hole the blood was coming out of. I yelled at Nic to give me the phone get me a towel and a magazine. I called Alex who was on his way home, he had just gotten off the highway. Then I had Nic get my neighbor Heidi. (None of this was done calmly - I was sending Nic in all directions at once - but he held it together! Heidi ran over and said we shouldn't wait for Alex and she ran home got her kids in the car and she drove me towards were he was coming from. Thankgoodness for her and Nic I don't know what I would have done!

We met Alex and headed to Banner Desert Children's Hospital. We left our car right in ER drop off and ran in Peds ER, cut the line and went straight to the desk. They took Justin right in the room and had me stay behind and give them his and his Peds Dr. info - plus they had me clean up all the blood all over my hands.

He fell about 630, we got to the hospital at 7:30, they xrayed and got the ped ortho surgeon, he was in pre-op at 9 and surgery was around 10 and took about 1.5 hrs. He was out of post op and in his room about 130.

Justin broke both bones in his left forearm and 2 pieces of bone punctured through the skin. The Surgeon said blood out, germs in so... they had to open arm and clean it out, set the bones - he had said he would have to do a rod too but after surgery he came out and said that he didn't use one after all - I'm so glad or he would have had to have that removed in 3 months. Due to swelling and the incision having to heal he is in a slint and swing and must stay still! They pumped him full of IV antibiotics, fluids and morphine - my poor little guy!

I stayed at the Hospital with Justin and Alex went home to poor Nic. Who was more upset then I thought... He had also spent 2 hours on the phone between my mom and my sister Kerri and the whole 2 hours he spent cleaning and bleaching the tile to clean up the blood. My poor Nic! When Alex got home Nic was still awake and actually spent the night on the floor in my bedroom so he wouldn't be alone...

Justin was able to leave the hospital on Friday. We follow up with the Peds Ortho Surgeon on Thursday. Hoping his incision is healing well and his bone has stayed still so they can put a hard cast on it.