He's Home!

Jay's finally home. 9 days in the hospital. Being home won't be much better, but he can see the kids more. He can't walk or stand- can't bend his knee. With time I guess. STILL practicing patience.

A Little Longer

Jay's day or two in the hospital has turned into a week just like that. So much fun. I've been up late trying to keep the house under control, and I get up early every morning to go see Jay before the kids are up. Luckily they sleep in. One morning I even came home to them making pancakes. Cindy and Amy have helped with the kids so I could make other visits to take Jay things like his pillow and deodorant- things that become necessary after a few days. He's a trooper. I'm ready for him to be home.

Jay's Knee

Well, we had a different Father's Day this year. Jay has been working in the Chiricahua Mountains (about an hour and a half away) for the past couple weeks installing a swimming pool. Friday night he got home around 6:30 and took a shower. When he got out, he was limping. He put his knees right next to each other and his left knee (the "good" knee) was very swollen. He kept reflecting on what he had done the last 2 days that may have cause him to re-tear the miniscus, which would not have been a surprise. He's done that 4 times already. He took some pain medicine, elevated his leg, and tried to sleep. By Satuday morning his knee was more swollen, red and hot to the touch. He was nauseous, and woke up dry-heaving. He was also in a lot of pain, and after lunch we finally decided to take him to the emergency room. The nurses and doctors there were great. Service was better than we've had before. They got us in quickly, and called in the orthopaedic doctor- Dr. Bryce for a consult, along with blood work and x-rays. Blood work showed inflammation, which we already knew, and x-rays showed nothing. Dr. Bryce came in and immediately knew it was prepatellar bursitis- an infection in the bursa or soft tissue around the kneecap. He said Jay was going to get a trip to La Hotel Mt. Graham- or Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center. He was admitted that evening and has been there since. We haven't been given a discharge date as the knee doesn't seem to be improving. It's still hot and red and swollen, and they started Jay on morphine this morning because the pain was getting bad again.

For Father's Day yesterday the oldest 5 kids and I took him cards and a key lime pie. He hasn't had much of an appetite, but ate a little. He was hoping to come home today, but thay said at least tomorrow. He's not sleeping much with all the noise and constant interruptions. No fun at all. A big thanks to Cindy and Sean and Dad and Patty for helping with the kids. They would have gone crazy waiting at the ER.

Addictions and Stuff

I think I'm addicted to gardening. I love being outside, even when it's hot. We've had great harvests of beets, carrots and onions, and are working toward everything else for the summer. Monday I picked a basket-full of plums and apricots. And I liked them. And I don't even like plums. I wake up in the morning and think about what I'm going to do to help the garden progress that day, and whether or not there will be anything to harvest. I try to get out before the kids wake up because it's a lot easier that way, but they have been helping too. We've been pulling weeds like mad with help from Cindy's family, Amy's family and Dad and Patty. The weeds are almost under control now. We had to replant corn as most of it didn't germinate, and lots of what did got eaten by the squirrels and the geese. Looking forward to homemade salsa and fresh corn.

I'm still sick with this pregnancy. I had an appointment Monday and told my doctor, who thought I should be over it by now. I'm not at all. I threw up outside our office on Saturday, and kept hoping nobody saw, then again before church the next day. My doc gae me a prescription to help, but I can't find it. So, until I find it I guess I won't know if it works.

And, we got a puppy. She's an Australian Shepherd named CJ, which stands for nothing in particular. We thought she had run away once already, but she was hiding under a cart asleep. The kids are enjoying time outside with her.

James My Helper

This morning I had a beautiful batch of whipping cream mixing in the Kitchen Aid, and I sat down at the table to cut the tops off the strawberries. My kids love strawberries and cream. A minute later I heard a banging noise in the mixer, and wondered what it could be. I ran over to shut it off, and found James watching the mixer intently. I thought maybe he had thrown in a toy or something. Nope. It was a whole onion. It smelled terrible. Unfortunately, the entire batch of cream was ruined. Fortunately, I had enough to make a new batch. Thank you, James. You're such a helper.

Janna's Writing

Going to Disneyland
By Janna Curtis
05/10/10

Disneyland is so much fun. Disneyland here we come! We play, and play them my mom looks at her clock, "It's time to go" she says. So we walk to our car and go home.
I slap my mom she turns around. I diden't ride dumbo. So she takes me to dumbo and I get on.
Then we walk to our car. Our mom goes then I slap her. I diden't ride the roller coaster. So we go back and I ride the roller coaster. Then we go home for good.

P.S. This never really happened, and it's been 4 years since we've been to Disneyland.