Colorado Sate University

Monday was the first day of school at Colorado State University. While dad wasn't in Ft. Collins to attend class, he is registered to start his MBA. With two kids and one on the way Dad and Mom decided it would be best if he did a distance MBA program. While it would have been nice to be able to attend classes in person it just makes more sense to not pack up the family and move and have to find a new job. The program will be over in 21 months, but if you see Chad in the next 21 months and he seems a little stressed out you'll understand why.

Crappy Cast Off

One of the reason's we haven't blogged for a little while is because we had to house sit for a family for a week and a half, but while we were there we took off Brookley's cast. While it seemed too good to be true to be able to swim with a cast we were reassured several times it was. Well after only ten days we took it off and she had a horrible rash. While it didn't bother her while it was on it really looked painful off.

Swimming with the Stagg's

This was a couple of weeks ago but right before school started we decided to head up to the mountains with the Stagg's. For those in Vernal, Brian moved here a little over a year ago. I mean what are that chances that two boys growing up in the same ward end up living in the same semi-small town in California. Well we had a good time and all the kids seemed to enjoy playing in the water and sand.

Brookley's Scrapes, Scratches and Scares

If you're reading this before the previous post you should probably read that one first to understand why we're writing this. Of course with Brookley's broken elbow we got to thinking about how many things have happened to Brookley in just here short four and a half years. Then we thought it would be interesting for others to see what an amazing girl Brookley is and what an inspiration she is for her courage and strength. The following is a list of what we can remember of painful and scary moments she has had to deal with:

- Born with two heart defects: Ebstein's Anomaly and Ventricular Septal Defect
- Has a partial lung obstruction, possibly caused by her heart defects, but we're still not sure what the exact cause is.
- Spent a week in the hospital for RSV at a month and a half old (Her first smile was the day we left the hospital)
- Two visits to the ER for what we think was Croup. (It might not have been Croup but she was having a very dificult time breathing and coughing loudly.)
- An outbreak of canker sores in her mouth that made it very hard to eat or swallow.
- Three visits to the ER for Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW), which is an accelerated heart beat or around 240 bpm caused by Ebstein's anomaly. (She now takes medicine three times a day to prevent this from happening again.)
- Four Febrile seizures (fever seizures) with two ambulance rides and an overnight stay in the hospital. (Probably the scariest thing to have happen when you don't know what is happening)
- Altitude sickness causing several visits to the hospital in Utah and Yosemite. (We now know what is happening, so we take oxygen with us)
- Two urinary tract infections (UTI's)
- Head stapled when she split it open on the edge of a table (Most impressive because she didn't even cry or flinch when they stapled her, but Dad did both I think)
- One dislocated elbow
- One broken elbow
- Countless head, elbow and knee scrapes

We've lost count of how many ER visits she's had but she has visited six ER's (Visalia, two in Fresno, Yosemite Valley, Provo, Salt Lake and Vernal). Some of the visits probably weren't as necessary but with the heart defects Mom and Dad aren't going to take any chances. Like I said Brookley is an inspiration to us because she never lets anything keep her down and is usually up and at it the very next day like nothing ever happened.

We Wish It Wasn't True

We might seem like the worst parents in the world but I promise we try hard to keep our children safe. Of course Mom and Dad are both fairly clumsy so the kids already had the cards stacked up against them when they were born. We'll anyway a couple of weeks ago Brookley was out jumping on the tramp and feel wrong and came in screaming to Mom. Since she had dislocated her elbow last year we thought it might be that but to be safe Mom took her in to the doctor to get X-rays he looked at it and said it didn't look broken or dislocated so he gave her a sling and sent her on her way. Then after a week and a half of a black and blue elbow and occasional severe pain we decided something wasn't right. We got new X-rays and the radiologist still didn't think it was broken or dislocated, so they sent us up to Valley Children's to possibly get an MRI done. When Mom and Brookley got there the doctor took one look at it and said it was broken and where and then looked at the X-rays and sure enough Brookley had a hairline fracture on her elbow. So they cast it and will keep in on there for ten days. The cool thing about the cast was that it of a brand new material that allows Brookley to go swimming or take a shower with it.

P.S. We aren't letting Brookley jump on the tramp anymore but we thought it would add more to the story showing a picture of the tramp where she hurt her elbow.

New Rental Home

We actually moved in a couple of weeks ago, but we never took the time to take a picture of our new rental home. The only problem is that we don't really know how long we'll be living in here. The owners gave us a great deal on it because they had to move quickly and needed a renter they could trust. The one catch is that the home is up for sale and so we could have to move at any time. Who knows when the the house will sale but it is scary when the realtor calls and says that somebody wants to look at the house. It has four bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. It's a really nice house but it hard to really feel too comfortable.