2012 In Review

It was quite an eventful year for us.  It’s nice to have some proof that we did more than just build our house!

Daniel: Turned 1, heart healthy (!!), surgery for tubes and to open his tear ducts, normal hearing (!!!), sprouted at least a dozen teeth, got his first haircut, learned to crawl, learned to cruise, learned to stand unassisted, learned to blow kisses and play Peek-a-boo, learned a few signs…oh, and won the popularity contest everywhere he went.

Caleb: Turned 4, broke his nose, had surgery to fix his nose and place ear tubes, crammed a broken plastic pipe into the back of his mouth, got lots of scrapes and bruises, fell off his chair at every meal, cut his hair and Daniel’s too, cut his finger open with a box cutter, started preschool, perfected every ninja move in the book.

Rachel: Learned to read, turned 5, graduated from Preschool, lost her first two teeth (in the same week), started Kindergarten.

Josh: Ran the Wellsville Mile, earned his Bear in Cub Scouts, turned 10, participated in his first Pinewood Derby, started 5th grade.

Emily: Participated in the Young Writers’ Fest, went to Girls’ Camp and won the “Giggler” award, started 7th grade, earned her Faith in God award, turned 12, started Young Women, gave her first Sacrament Meeting talk, spent lots of hours babysitting, got her first 4.0.

Heather: Went to Girls’ Camp, said good-bye to the most amazing Young Women in the world, spent countless hours painting, made lots of meals, did lots of laundry, put lots of miles on the Suburban, and is in the process of filling 2 million finish nail holes (and we won’t mention anything about getting her first ticket).

Jared: Started the process to become a Certified Valuation Analyst, was appointed to the board of directors for the Sunshine Terrace Foundation, was released from the Bishopric, did 99% of the finish electrical work in our new house, and did a lot of sub-contractor babysitting.

Knee Surgery

I had knee surgery on April 20 to repair a torn meniscus. Here's a looksie at the fun!

This is right after surgery. My knee is all bandaged up, and there's a white sock from my toes all the way up to the top of my thigh. It is to help with circulation, so the chance of getting a clot is reduced. I had to wear it until I was able to get around without crutches. I was able to put as much weight on my leg as I could tolerate. Amazingly, I didn't feel an ounce of pain until about 2 days after the surgery.

This is 48 hours after the surgery, when I got to take the bandages off and have a shower! Can you see the orange all the way from my ancle up to my mid-thigh? That's the antiseptic stuff they cleaned it off with before the surgery. It was tricky getting my leg up over the edge of our tub (which is higher than normal) to get into the shower!

This is how it looks without the bandage. The surgeon wrote "yes" on the correct leg just before they took me in to surgery. I'm glad they took the extra precautions to keep from operating on the wrong knee! Consequently, it took at least a week for that "yes" to wear off! You can't really see the stitches, but there are two of them, one on either side of my knee cap. They came out one week after the surgery.

I was on crutches for almost a week, though I was only using one for the last couple of days. I went to physical therapy 4 times. They really push you, but I really enjoyed going because it always made my knee feel so much better.