Fun Update

Things are still the same here since I wrote last. But I have some fun stories to share.

Miciah

Last week we went to eat at McDonald's. Miciah always wants a milkshake with her meal. So we got her a milkshake and she was downing that instead of eating her other food. Finally I took the milkshake from her and said, "You have to eat something else before you can have more. You haven't even TOUCHED your hamburger." She looked at me, reached over, and put her hand on top of her hamburger. I turned to Rob and said, "I'm going to pretend I don't see that." She then said, "Did you mean touch it with my MOUTH?" :)

Miciah has been very into asking what things mean, especially phrases that don't really mean what they say. For instance, the above story--I didn't really want her to touch her hamburger. I wanted her to eat it. The other day Uncle B said, "Twist my arm" when I offered him a cookie. Miciah looked at him really strangely and wanted to know why I would want to hurt him. So he explained what the phrase meant and why he used it at that time. ... What a fun stage.

The other story about Miciah involves our cat and our neighbor, C. Ceasar has decided that their yard is his property. Well, their granddaughter, E, who is 7 (I think) is afraid of the cat, apparently. Ceasar was following her (she thought chasing her), so E ran screaming behind the screen door. Ceasar then plopped down on the porch waiting for her to come out (or just claiming the space as his, whichever). So C opened the door and tried to shoo him away. It wasn't working, so she got some water and sprinkled some on him to get him to move. ... Well, apparently E told this to Miciah because a few days later, Miciah went up to C and said, very seriously and slowly, "I don't like water on my cat." :) C told this to me and I just laughed. Oh, my Miciah.

Miciah did have an ear infection a while ago. We took her in to the doctor after being up half the night with a hurting Miciah. They put her on amoxicillan. Well, about a week later she woke up saying her pajamas were itchy. I ignored the comment cause "itchy" is code-word around here for "I don't want to wear it." She was having trouble with the zipper, so I undid it for her and was shocked at what I saw. Her entire torso was red with hives! But then I thought for a moment and remembered Elijah's amoxicillan reaction. And the next few days went exactly how Elijah's experience had. All over her torso, changing places, on her head, especially behind her ears. She was pretty miserable for a while, but Benadryl helped, thankfully. And it was nice to have had one kid already go through it, cause I knew what it was and what to expect. So no more amoxicillan for Miciah or Elijah. ... Makes me wonder what Teancom's experience will be.

(I wrote some of this e-mail about a week ago, and now I'm finishing it.) Miciah's ear infection was back full force on Sunday. She was miserable. We couldn't do anything about it cause we were up north visiting family. So we got a pillow out of our car and she slept on the floor of the church for a few hours. We came back home and had JR (our medical student/will-be-official-doctor-in-2-weeks friend) look in her ears. Definitely an ear infection. We thought we'd try to wait out the infection, since we'd already been through the hard day, right? Well, Monday wasn't any better. Rob was trying to reason with her, which she does quite well usually, and I looked at him and said, "She's not a 5-year-old today. She's a 3-year-old. Remember that." But we got tired of toughing it out and went to the doctor today. Of course the infection was still there. They prescribed her something else and within 4 hours we had Miciah back. And that was nice. Hurray for medicine!

Elijah

And then there's Elijah. Elijah is so full of energy and fun! He's jumping and dancing and running around crazy! It's fun to watch (makes me tired just watching him, but I love it). He jumps down out of the van now, and then he'll hop halfway across the parking lot (which makes things a little difficult when I'm trying to go fast), just loving it. It's fun to watch him learn to master his body and learn what it can do. So this morning he was getting himself dressed, which he does all the time now. He was very insistent that he wanted to wear swim trunks with a collared shirt. The kid's already got style! :) Anyways, he came to me so I could help him put on his underwear, but then he wouldn't stand still. He was hopping around everywhere. I finally was getting his underwear on and he said, "Mom, let go. Gotta dance!" It made me smile.

We did have Elijah's 3-year check-up, and the doc told us Elijah is healthy and right on track with everything. We already knew that, but it's always nice to hear it validated.

Elijah's new phrase is now, "I don't WANT TO!" He's wanting to be more and more independent, which is great. He's picking out all his clothes (which I mentioned above), changing them about 3 times a day, insisting on what to eat or watch on TV or what to play with. It's great to see him become a person instead of just my baby boy. And he's still cuddly and sweet, so I don't lose that part.

Today at dinner I was talking to Miciah about school. She said she'd go to Kindergarten, then 1st grade, then 2nd, etc., etc., all the way up to 12th grade. Then she said, "What will I do after that?" I told her then she could go to college if she wanted. At the sound of that, Elijah started nodding vigorously. I turned to him and said, "Do you want to go to college?" He said, "No, not yet." Okay, good answer, I thought. Then he finished, "I eat first." I laughed.

With summer almost upon us, the kids are playing hard during the day. Elijah is needing naps during the day, which is weird to be back to nap time, but it's better than dealing with monster Elijah when he's too tired. ... But because of all the extra sleep, I think, he was up today at 4 a.m. thinking it was morning. Ick. We set him on the couch with a movie and went back to bed. I don't know if he slept more or not. But I did! :)

Teancom

Teancom is trying hard to crawl. He does this get on his tip toes thing and try to scoot/crawl/army crawl. It's cute. Not quite crawling, but he'll make it there soon, I think. He's still just as cute and charming as ever. A healthy, happy kid with 2 fingers in his mouth.

Rob and Tamra

Rob went on a campout this past weekend with P, our nephew, and the scout troop Rob is over. They went caving in Carter Caves, if anyone knows where that is--somewhere in KY. He said it was fun. The best part of the trip is that it took them 2 1/2 hours to get there and the way home took them almost 4 hours because they took a "shortcut" home. ... I think I'm going to buy the scoutmaster a map and lecture him about being prepared. :)

We also entertained B, Rob's little brother, who is out here in Ohio for a little while. He was supposed to already be home, but he had knee surgery on Monday (yesterday) instead. So last week we brought him down to our house where we played Nintendo a lot and kept him from being too bored out of his mind. Then we sent him home with the Nintendo so he could play that while recovering.

We went up Friday to M's house and hung out there for 2 days. We went to a little lake by their house for the kids to play. That was fun. We had half a scary moment when Elijah tripped in the water and kersplatted into it. The water was only maybe a foot and a half deep. It was comical to watch him face plant in the water, but then he wasn't getting up, and suddenly it wasn't comical. It hadn't occured to me that it would be hard to get up out of the water like that. Luckily B was standing right there and pulled Elijah up. Elijah was scared and the second day he wouldn't get any further in than getting his toes wet. :) At this point of his life, being a little afraid of the water is just not a bad thing.

... And it's been really hard to focus this week for many reasons, not the least of which is our trip on Thursday. We have babysitters lined up and Rob and I are going to hang out at Miami Beach for a few days. Rob has a scientific convention there, and I'm tagging along. So it's not all pleasure, but there will be time to play. ... I'm excited, more than anything, to be on the plane and be able to read a book! :)

Then we'll come back next week, and the kids and I will turn around on June 1st and fly out to California. We'll come back July 4th. Somewhere in that time I'll be driving out to Utah with my Mom and the kids and we'll get to see lots of people, I'm sure. That will be fun.

Okay, that's the update. Hope all is going well for you all!

Tamra and family

Events to Share

Well, not much of import has happened lately, but we've had events, so I'll share those.

Knee Surgery Update

Rob is not off his brace yet, technically. He goes to physical therapy tomorrow and he expects he will be released from having to wear his brace then. This week is week 6, I think, so he's right on schedule. He's not been ahead, but he's not been behind, either. ... It's been interesting to watch his recovery. First, when he just had surgery, he'd try to flex his quads and they just didn't flex at all. Now they both will flex, but his surgery leg is obviously weaker and he can flex his leg and keep it straight, but it shakes a lot. That's been the slow-up with getting the brace off. His quad has to be "firing." In other words, it has to be responding when his mind and/or body says flex. ... He's been not wearing his brace for a week, though, except to school. Places he knows he won't have to walk very far, he doesn't worry about his brace. Rob can now do exciting things like not walk with a noticable limp and walk up and down stairs one foot at a time (you know, like without having to put both feet on each stair). He went to work out with me yesterday, which consisted of walking without his brace on a treadmill for 20 minutes, lifting weights on his upper body, and doing some abducter machine (I don't really know what they're called. It's the machine where you sit down like in a chair and push out with your legs like you're doing a butterfly movement or something). It was fun and it was good to see him able to do a few things.

Trip to Toledo

Rob's little brother, G, is going on a mission next month, so a lot of our recent activities, and activities we'll be doing later, center around that. I took the kids and went up to Toledo to see Grandma and Grandpa D so that the kids could have a chance to see their great grands that they don't get to see too often. It was a fun trip, but I ended up not sleeping like at all up there, which meant I was just really, really tired the whole time. They had me in a tiny, poorly-circulated room so I was too hot, on a bed not my own, with 2 kids, one of whom wakes up at least once during the night still (despite sleeping, actually, pretty well. He wakes up once, normally, but sleeps usually 4 - 6 hours, wakes up, then another 8 hours or so) and on top of that makes lots of baby noises through the night, and plus, the two kids don't know how to sleep in the same room together, so I had to treat going to bed as a 3 part process: get Elijah to sleep, get myself and Miciah ready for bed, then lay Miciah and myself down after Elijah was out, so that then they wouldn't just laugh at each other and keep each other awake. ... Anyways, I was so tired that on the trip back home I had Rob meet me halfway so I wouldn't have to drive the whole thing. Sad, but safe. I came home, took 3 Advil, 1 decongestant, and slept for 2 hours. I felt better after that. :)

Family Spat at Columbus

The next day, Saturday, was exciting. Rob and I (without the kids) went to the Columbus Temple. G got his endowment out and seemed to really be touched by the whole thing, which was great. We went out to eat afterwards and experienced an all-too-common family spat. There's a particular family member that has anger issues. Anyways, I expressed an opinion he didn't like (imagine me with opinions, I'm sure that'll be hard for you guys to envision), and he got really, really angry. Like, sudden rage. He started talking to me meanly, which Rob didn't like, so Rob told him so. Anyways, it ended with Rob covered in Diet Pepsi (Rob was wearing a nice white shirt and his suit pants), and the other guy leaving the room for the last half hour or so of the meal. So all-in-all, the day was interesting. :) Anyways, the family spat didn't ruin our day and Rob and I have since apologized for our part in the matter. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone being offended by my opinions. I hardly have any and they're so mild at that.

We spent Sunday with R & C, and B & R. It was a blast. We talked a lot about the reunion, which was a good thing, cause all the things I had questions about, they hadn't talked about yet. :) So it was good to talk about them.

Soccer on Memorial Day

Monday we went to a ward Memorial Day picnic. This is the reason I've been working out (lightly) for 3 weeks. Because they played soccer. Which is fun. The guy in charge loves soccer (he's from Columbia) and announced to the whole Elders' Quorum that I was excellent at soccer. Yikes. It ended up being a really good thing that I'd been at least making an effort for 3 weeks. Because I have been so sore that I think I would have died had I not been at least doing somthing exercise-wise before the game. Our team won. 10-9. I didn't score any. I played defense. But I did get to shut down a few of the other teams' best players. I won respect for girls (which has apparently been part of my call in life), scared a few of the guys on the other team, and won several nicknames and possibly a reputation that will follow me in this ward for a while. The best person out of the field was a little kid that my Mom and Dad know (at least they know his family). Drew, Missy's kid. I don't know how old he is, but clearly he's "too short" for his age. I sympathized. But only a little, cause he didn't need the height. He was awesome. Impressive ball control, composure, etc. He was just good. I shook his hand afterward. He wasn't impressed. :)

I'm going to keep exercising, though. Cause I've fallen in love with it again. Like L, I feel better about myself, I like being able to see my muscles when I flex them, I like the way my body looks better, and I'm on my way to meeting some of my weight/image goals. And I like all of that. Also, like L, I'm not working out hard core. Jogging, biking, light-ish weights (any weights for me must, by definition, be light). Rob says he's going to keep working out with me over the summer, so I'm excited. I've been debating finding a soccer league to play in. But it's expensive, apparently, to play. One league showed $425. Sheesh. Maybe an indoor league. I've heard they're only $50 - $100. That's a little more manageable.

Fish Tank

We got fish. Someone gave us an 20 gallon (high) aquarium. We're in process of killing all the fish we've introduced. It's a new tank, and we were told, of course, to wait to introduce many fish. Of course we didn't listen. We started with 6 zebra danios (my fish, if the family will recall from old times). These were the hearty species we decided to start with. Then we decided (I'd like to say Rob decided, but it was really an us decision. He didn't want to wait and I didn't think it'd be a problem) to get a few more fish. So 2 days later we got 6 neon tetras (Collin's fish), a Paul Scum-sucker, and a silver bala shark. Well, we lost a zebra first. Don't know why. Rob says he had an open sore a day before he died. Then we started losing neons. 2 were in the filter, but did they get sucked in or did they die and then get sucked in, we don't know. 2 just lost color and then died. Then, just last week, Ick arrived. Our last 2 neons got a little (one only had a spot or two), our bala was covered in it, and Paul was near-covered. Well, we lost little neon first. The 2nd neon is doing good. No Ick now, which makes me wonder if he ever had it (did we just make it up?). Bala shark died today. Rather, I killed him, since he would have died shortly anyway (he was really acting so sad it was unbearable for me to watch). Paul is going to die, I think, very soon. He doesn't look substantially better after 2 days of treatment, he's not eating, and he's acting really really weird. Like he'll stay in one spot for hours. Last night he was floating upside-down at the top of the tank, like he'd forgotten which way was down. I dunno. Anyways. The zebras are fine and I think they'll make it through the new tank process and the Ick. Plus, we've learned that once they've been exposed to Ick, they'll never get it again. The lone neon looks good, but I have doubts about a community fish doing very well on his own. Our tank will need a Paul, so after this one dies, we'll get another one shortly (after letting our tank chill for a while after the Ick attack). Apparently Rob and I are rather good at killing off fish, no matter the species. ... As a side note, family, which fish were whose? I thought I remembered that Budge's were Angel Fish (they're bullies so we don't have any). Everyone else?

That's our update for now. Next week Rob and I will be going back up to Toledo to do bonding time with G before he leaves on his mission. And a week before everyone arrives for the family reunion we'll go back up for the farewell. It'll all be fun. That's about all that's on our agenda for the next month. Rob's finals are next week, the 6th and the 7th. His 7th is his last final and my birthday, which is a WONDERFUL b-day gift. Being done with classes. Rob will start his P&G rotation, we just found out, on June 13th. We will be paid our increased salary starting August 1st (meaning that will be our first increased paycheck), which is as soon as we could have hoped for. In July he'll start doing stuff for the IGERT, so we're interested to see how all that will go. 3 people out of the 5 in Rob's program that started with him are on academic probation and will probably be gone in a year. Which is a bummer, but makes me feel proud of my husband. I've sometimes thought he wasn't as "bright" as others, but let's face it, to be doing well in Graduate School and get a fellowship, you can't be dumb. So I'm very proud of him.

We love you all and sorry this was so long.

Tamra and family

More of the Knee Surgery Saga

Well, this last week has been trying. :)

Knee Surgery Update

Rob is feeling much better today. The amount that he can move around now as compared to the day of the surgery is amazing. He's doing, I think, as well as expected, but not as well as he expected. He thought he was going to just bounce right back, I think. On the contrary, he has missed school all week, we didn't go to church today, and he's still not as mobile, or out of pain (since you can be in pain, you should be able to be out of pain, too). We've invited a family over this week for dessert and games, more for my sanity than anything, and it should be just about all we can handle. We've had a lot of support from people, but it's still been a little overwhelming for me. I feel like a single mom with Rob just watching me do stuff. :) But every day it gets better and I'd rather have this problem than lots of others we could have. ... There's a trip we're supposed to take on Saturday that involves a one way 3 hour drive. I can't imagine we're actually going to make it. Unless Rob is miraculously better by then. I might just go without him, because he'll be well enough to take care of himself, but I'll have to take the kids with me. And me, alone, with 2 kids for 3 hours? I'm not sure I'm excited about that, either. :) We'll have to see.

Elijah is Sick

On Friday Elijah wasn't doing so well. He started the day with a fever of 99.5 and the last time we checked it before I went to an Urgent Care place at 7:30pm, it was 103. Sheesh. The double ear infections that he had 10 days before hadn't gone away. So we're on round 2 of antibiotics. Elijah is doing better. There's no fever and he's not as fussy, but I can tell he's not back to feeling well yet. He's mostly not fussy, but he's not happy either. And it takes a lot for him not to be happy. So tomorrow I'll be calling his doctor to set up a follow-up visit to make sure we get this taken care of. I'm afraid we're looking at never-ending ear infections and tubes in the ears or something like that. ... From the way Elijah's been acting today, I have a nagging feeling the 2nd round of antibiotics won't work either. I'll keep you all up on how that goes.

Getting a Raise

And we're still really excited about getting a raise. That's been a shining moment for this week. :) I'm holding up okay, but probably only because when it's time for bed I'm so tired that I sleep like a baby. I think that's been God's gift to me this last week. I'm remembering that there are just times in life where you don't think about much other than just getting through. My dishes are perpetually not done, the house is usually a mess, I haven't done any of the "fun" things I normally do to keep myself sane, and just today I finally got together enough to make dinner. :) ... If Rob and I had known how hard the surgery and circumstances would be, we would have done it differently. But, can't change it now, and we're making it. And for now, that's good enough.

We love you all.

Tamra

Knee Surgery and IGERT

I'll send a little more detail later as we get detail. But Rob was in contact with many people today about the IGERT Fellowship. They all were very willing to work with him and get things in order so it's worth everyone's time to take the Fellowship. Rob just officially accepted the Fellowship and is excited about it. What the scholarship means for us is a hefty raise, along with the prestige of the award, as well as hopefully opening more doors for Rob in his career in the future. Rob will still be able to do the Procter and Gamble rotation this summer that he's so excited about. And it looks like we'll be able to work out Dr. R (his mentor) paying for family insurance (the one major expense this scholarship would increase for us). They're also willing to decrease the amount of classes Rob will have to take and they said they'd be willing to let him take them slowly, like one at a time, so he won't miss a lot of time in the lab. So all's looking pretty good.

Other than that, Rob's knee is doing okay. He's still feeling crappy and he's not able to do much at all, but he's feeling better. Not much to say on it. I took a picture of it for you all to see. We just took off all the dressings today. The leg is pretty swollen, but there's not much discoloration yet. I'm sure that will come.

Tamra

Rob's Knee Surgery

Well, some of you already know all this, so forgive the repeat. But here's the news from today.

To start with, I was really bored. :) Okay, that wasn't a tragedy, it was inevitable. But nevertheless, it was beyond true. I was the third person there in the waiting room and not a single person who started there with me (or was there even soon after that) was there when I left. They had all left hours before. I have now seen more soaps in a day than I have in the rest of my life combined (which means I watched 2 today). I saw Ellen (she's really funny), watched the entire process of the Pope being elected, from the announcers saying, "Is it really white smoke?" to the announcement in Latan, to the Swiss Guard and all the ceremony following. It was REALLY cool. I wrote a letter, wrote in my journal, read 50 pages in a book, ate very little and slept not at all (unfortunately on both counts). And all of this BEFORE 2:30pm.

Now, what you want to hear about. Rob went in at 8:30am. He was in good spirits and we were laughing about stuff. They gave him a local block for his leg. (He's just now, actually, finally starting to feel the ice pack on his knee.) They did the surgery. I was talking to the doctor who did the surgery, Dr. Kenter, at noon. He showed me pictures which were cool. Basically, from what he said, there was some more damage in there than they expected to see. Not unusual damage, though. There was a little arthritis in there. And the back of the knee cap was really worn down, which he didn't expect at all. But, he said because of that, it's a good thing that Rob went with the type of surgery he went with (there are 2 options), the hamstring option. The other option that he didn't choose would have taken away some strength from the knee cap, and he said with the damage there it just wouldn't have been good. So, that was nice to hear, that we made the right choice. But in spite of the damage, he said the surgery went really well. He sounded really positive and was impressed with his own handiwork, which is good. He said we'll have to see how it heals, but he expected it to go well and was optimistic. He also showed me a picture that caught my eye. You know how you see like shark attack wounds when they're fresh, and the flesh is just shredded? That's what this looked like. I think that was supposed to be his ACL. I can't be sure about that, and I'm sure he'll tell Rob on Monday when he goes for a return appt., but whatever it was, it was DEFINITELY not supposed to look like that. It just looked like carnage inside the body. Wow.

So all in all, we're glad we did the surgery now before the damage got worse.

As for recovery, Rob has a brace that he's supposed to wear (I don't know until when) that keeps his leg absolutely straight. He can weight bear on it, and he's already done so to get up the stairs to our apt. He is supposed to do minor exercises for now and hobble around and try to get off crutches as soon as he can, like in the next week or two, I think. Really, it sounds good. I guess there are a couple different philosophies doctors can take after this surgery. For instance, my friend's doctor is apparently anti-brace. Thinks people can rely on them too much. Obviously Rob's doctor is okay with braces. And that's okay with me. The drug docs said the pain will be the worst tonight and tomorrow, and if tonight is any indication, Rob should be okay. Granted, he's only sitting on the couch, but that's okay for now. The doc sounded like Rob will really be able to go as full speed as he wants to, within some guidelines. And we now own some cool equipment--crutches, a leg brace, and some rad ice pack that's like a cooler that constantly pumps ice cold water into a pack covering his leg. He's supposed to keep ice on it for at least 24 - 48 hours following surgery.

Other than that, let's see. Rob is not very grouchy now, which is nice. He was pretty out of it and grouchy when he first came out, which wasn't so easy. I guess I just didn't remember that pain and drugs do that (I'm sure I was like that after the 2 C's I had). Oh! That's right. The other thing the doc said was that he was able to repair Rob's miniscus, which is good. It'll increase recovery time, though. He said normally for the surgery they start pretty agressive therapy right away, with full range of motion. Well, with this, it'll be about 6 weeks before they start doing that kind of stuff. He made it sound to me like Rob should not move his knee past 90 degrees for those 6 weeks. I'm sure we'll find out more as it goes on.

Really, right now we're just going with the flow. And hopefully tonight things go just fine sleeping, cause I'm really tired, and Rob's really tired.

And S, don't feel bad. Rob's Mom came down to help us with the kids, or I'd be calling in favors from just about everyone I know. :) As it was, she was at our house to watch the kids from when we left at 6:45am - 5:00pm. And my good friend across the way cooked dinner for us, which was really nice. Even though I told her not to bother, we'd have it all taken care of, it was REALLY nice to have it taken care of by her. And with me and Rob not so emotionally on top of the world, it's nice to have Grandma here to help with everything we still have to do--like be nice to our kids.

We love you all and we'll keep you updated as this goes on.

Tamra

The latest

Happy birthday, J. :)

Well, we're all doing okay here, meaning we're all alive and happy, so that's a good start.

I finally went to a doctor on Saturday for my sinus infection that wouldn't go away. I read a little on sinus infections and was seeing things like "chronic symptoms" and "could last for months to years," and I was inspired to go get an antibiotic. Lo and behold, the doc agreed that I was sick and gave me 2 drugs: an antibiotic and a decongestant-type. I feel much better and on Sunday, for the first time in a week, my ears didn't ring and I wasn't feeling a ton of pressure in them. So I'm well on my way to getting better (I hope). There's still some congestion, but it's so much better than it was, and my head is no longer throbbing when I get tired.

Elijah started getting a fever on Friday night. I didn't think much of it because he wasn't acting really cranky or anything. He was sleeping a lot and acting a little lethargic. I just assumed he was teething. Anyways, he had his 12 month visit yesterday, and by the time we got to the doctor's office his eyes were goopy and swollen and red and his nose was just gross. He still had the same low fever from 3 days ago (we hadn't given him any medicine). The doctor checked his ears and he not only has a double ear infection, but the doctor said it's one of the worst ear infections he's seen this year. So, how about that, my kid is a stand out. :) Luckily we had a doctor's appointment anyways, cause I probably would not have brought him in. ... Last night he woke up screaming in pain, and I felt really bad for him. It's brought back memories of an ear infection I had when I was young. I remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was going to die and being really mad at Mom for not taking me to the doctor RIGHT THEN. :) And I remember the pink medicine that I took religiously on time because I didn't want to be in any more pain. ... Elijah also picked up a hacking cough last night, so we set up a humidifier to try to help, again taking me back to my childhood. A humidifier is still a comfort object for me. :) ... After the doctor told us about the ear infection, I started thinking about what Elijah was doing to show us he had an infection. He hasn't been tugging on his ear, but he's been giving us and other people this weird sideways look where he scrunches up his ear down by his shoulder. He's also been occasionally grabbing his head with both hands in some sort of frustrated something (obviously, now, pain). I feel like a bad mom. But at least he's only been really sick since Friday.

As a side note, I called Rob's mom to tell her about how we were sick down here and she told me about Rob's sister and her family. They have 2 cases of strep, 2 kids with upper respiratory infections, and 1 kid (the baby) with an ear infection. So I guess our family is behind. :)

Anyways, the rest of us (meaning Rob and Miciah) are just fine. Rob is anxious for the surgery coming up, and we're semi-battling the insurance company to make sure they'll cover it. They sent him a form asking about pre-existing condition stuff. Everyone we've talked to in person says it should be covered because it doesn't qualify as a pre-existing condition, but they won't give us any guarantee. Well, we're going to make sure we have a guarantee before the surgery.

My friend that had the same surgery Rob is going to have is now in her 5th week since the surgery of being on crutches. She still can not bear weight on the leg. Let us hope Rob is not the same way. Her injury (though the same injury) was worse, and she was on crutches even before the surgery. She has 4 kids, including a 5 month-old. The ward has been helping her out a lot.

That's us. Hopefully next time I write, Elijah and I will be all better.

Tamra

The start of the beginning...

We went up to see Rob's family this last weekend. Rob was on spring break, so we went up Thursday and stayed until Saturday. His sister and her family were moving into a new house less than a mile away, so in many ways it was an easy move. And there were a lot of people helping. We had a little Easter celebration Saturday, which was fun.

We have missed C, my kids' surrogate grandmother. We went to see R one night so he didn't feel left out. :) He was glad that he didn't go to CA cause all it did was rain while C was there! I went to see C when she got back yesterday. She gave me the gifts from her and Mom (thanks, Mom), and we gave each other big hugs. I also brought Elijah so she could play with him.

Rob's little brother got his mission call this week. He leaves in July for Manaus, Brazil, which, interestingly enough, is the same place Rob's other brother went on his mission (he got back Dec 2003).

Rob just found out that he needs knee surgery, if people don't know that. He has a torn ACL and miniscus (however you spell that), and has had these problems for the last 3 years. It's finally gotten bad enough (and our insurance good enough) that we're having it taken care of. His surgery is scheduled for April 19th. It's an outpatient surgery, and we've been told the recovery won't be horrible, but he'll probably be on crutches for like 2 weeks. So that's relatively big news.
The IGERT scholarship Rob has applied to, which would give us a healthy raise starting this next school year. They still haven't made a decision on it, as far as we know, but they have moved up the deadline on making that decision from April 15th to April 1st. So hopefully Friday or Monday we will have some news for people one way or the other. Rob has told Dr. R that he will be working in his lab for the rest of the time he's here doing his doctorate. He's thinking he'll try to do a collaborative project with both labs he's done a rotation with (Dr. R and Dr. N). They're both real positive about that.

Our entire family, minus Rob, is recovering from sicknesses. Elijah had a nasty something or other for about a week, but is back to 100% happy and healthy now. Miciah still had a cough yesterday and was sleepy, but appears to be fine today. I have some congestion, but I feel much better today than I did yesterday. We were thinking about going to see Julie and baby, but with us all getting over being sick, we'll wait another day or so before we go over. I think tomorrow we'll all be well enough, if they want to come to Elijah's b-day party (see next paragraph), but if they're not there, we'll think about Thursday or so going to see them.

This next week, Elijah's birthday is Wednesday. We're having 2 b-day "parties" (parties meaning we're having cake and icecream and hopefully people bring no gifts at all or really cheap ones). One with R & C and hopefully S (J & J, too?) on Tuesday. Then we're heading back up to Rob's sister's place this weekend (he has 2 sisters that live about 10 minutes away from each other (and less than 2 hours away from us). We'll be staying at the house of the sister who didn't just move). We'll watch Conference on their satelite, enjoy family time, and have Elijah's b-day party. It's exciting for us to have a weekend "off" where we don't have to be in town by Sunday morning.

Anyways, so that's us. Probably more than you all wanted to know, but that's how it goes, I guess. :) We love you all!

Tamra