Kayleigh

As you know, sometime this past summer, Kayleigh developed this noisy, labored breathing.
I have seen several doctors about this, so here is the latest update.
I started out seeing her family doctor who referred her to a pulmonologist. That doctor thought maybe it was asthma and tried her on Advair and Albuterol for a few weeks to see if it might make a difference, but it made no difference at all. He also had ordered an ecg (ecocardiogram - but I don't know how to spell it). When we went back to get the results, he said that the ecg showed everything was fine with her heart and after examining her again decided that her lungs were clear and he thought the problem was with her throat. So he referred her back to the ENT that she had seen when her tonsils were removed in January. He checked her out and said he couldn't see anything wrong in her throat (any scar tissue, obstruction, etc.) but he ordered a CAT scan done of her throat and upper respiratory tract. Today we went back for the results of that and it did show some problem in the upper respiratory tract. The ENT had called the pulmonologist to give him the report (since now it gets referred back to him). According to the doctor she saw today, the other doctor didn't think that would cause the problem with the breathing, but this doctor thinks it does present a problem, so he sent him a complete copy of the CAT scan (the written results as well as the actual scan) and I have to call the pulmonologist on Thursday to see what course of action he wants to take. Now for the scary part: This scan also happened to pick up an image of other organs and found she has some abnormality with her stomach and some sort of growth on her spleen, so she is being referred back to her family doctor for that. Her appointment with him is on Friday and he will probably just refer her to some other specialist that deals with internal organs. I know she will have to have another thorough CAT scan of the stomach and spleen as this was mentioned in the report of the scan of her throat.
So now we have two health concerns, and I'm getting worried. It seems that so far the only thing being done is a constant transfer from one doctor to another ( although, the doctor she saw today wants me to call him on Monday and let me know what the pulmonologist said as he said he didn't want this to just get pushed aside and not have something done about it, so I have at least one doctor trying to do something for her.)
I will let everyone know what I find out on Thursday and Friday. I probably won't be able to report anything on the stomach/spleen until after she has had another CAT scan and has been seen by another doctor, but hopefully we will have a plan of action on whatever the problem is with her respiratory tract.
Please keep her in your prayers.

Grandparents Day

I just had the wonderful opportunity of visiting both Lynnsey's and Kendall's schools for Grandparents Day. I suppose this is something that they observe at all schools but this year and last year is the first opportunity I have had to participate in this. When I moved to Michigan last year, Amy said that the first thing Kendall said when he heard I was moving here was that now he would have a grandparent to bring for Grandparents Day. I guess this was really important to him and he had always felt sad before when he didn't have a grandparent to attend. Last year, Lynnsey and Kendall were in the same school but this year, I got to go to two different schools (fortunately, they scheduled the times just right so grandparents could attend both schools.)
I got to see how they conduct their school day in Lynnsey's school. I was able to listen to stories read by her teacher and observe her in her Art class (she drew a really nice "Very Hungry Caterpillar". She presented me with a "handkiss" which was a fingerpainting of her handprint with a heart inside. This represents the story they read in class today of a little raccoon who was sad to leave his mother to go to school, so she took his hand and kissed his palm and told him that whenever he needed her love to be close to him just to take his hand that she had kissed and place it against his cheek and he would feel her love anytime he needed it. The kiss would never go away and he would always know how much she loved him. The little raccoon did the same for his mother before he left and as he waved goodbye when he went to school, the mother laid her handkiss against her cheek to feel her son's love. Some of these stories are really touching (especially for sentimental me and it took me back to when my children were all going off to school and how much I would miss them. The name of the book is The Kissing Hand.
When I got to Kendall's school, he greeted me with a huge smile (that child's smile can melt my heart every time. He did a grandparent interview (asking me all kinds of questions which were fun to answer), and then we went to have our photo taken. I had a photo with Lynnsey also and will post them when they come in. Kendall presented me with a drawing of 4 different colored squares with the letters L O V E - one letter in each square. Then we went in the gymn where we were entertained by several songs sung by all the students. I love to hear children's voices in song. It really makes you feel good. Also, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited at both schools and it was wonderful to hear the children's voices ringing out with '...one nation, under God...'!! (none of this political nonsense about not saying "under God". And how is this for luck, I won a school T-shirt at each of the schools!!
I wish that I could go to Grandparents Day at all of my grandchildren's schools (those that are in school now and those that will attend in the future.) It is a very special time that we get to share with them and I'm glad the schools recogonize the importance of the extended family unit. Thanks Lynnsey and Kendall for inviting me and letting me spend a very special day with you.

Michigan weather

I have lived in Michigan for a little over a year now and I must say, it never lacks for interesting weather. Who would ever think that a weather system (Hurricane Ike) that started its life off the coast of Africa would eventually end up passing through our little city of Albion. Naturally, it was the remnants of Ike which is now a tropical depression that came through, but it was still part of the same system that made landfall twice in Cuba then came roaring onshore again at Galveston, Tx. We have had some other little tropical system going on Friday and then Saturday and today, Ike joined forces with that and proceeded to dump 6 1/2 inches of rain yesterday and I'm sure much more than that today. It has actually been raining constantly since Friday morning--just light stuff on Friday and Friday night and heavier yesterday (obviously, since we got 6 1/2 inches) and today it came down in buckets and torrents. Today was our Linger Longer Sunday (pot luck lunch after the meetings) and when we came out, everything was awash and raining so hard, you could hardly see the cars in the parking lot. Naturally, I was umbrella-less, (something I plan to remedy very shortly) so I'm sure I made quite a stunning sight sprinting across the parking lot to the car with a plastic grocery bag over my head (it works great--you should try it some time if you're caught without an umbrella and just happen to have a grocery bag with you. After we got home, Kayleigh wore it into the house and it looked just as stylish on her.)
The rain, finally, is down to a light drizzle--now the winds have picked up and we're under a high wind advisary until 2 a.m. tomorrow morning with wind gusts of about 45 mph out of the north so there goes our nice warm tropical system--temps tomorrow are only going to be in the low sixties. But fortunately, the mid seventies will return in time for our Festival of the Forks celebration on Friday and Saturday. Taylor will be in the parade as part of the band, so we will try and get pictures of him and all the other sights of the festivities.
I'm very proud of the Michigan roads around here as they have stood up to all this rain without flooding at all (can't say that for Texas--they get a fraction of an inch and have to close roads everywhere. For some reason, the rain there just doesn't seem to sink into the soil and just runs off and floods everything). Anyway, with all this rain, we got off fairly lightly--some water in the basement (mostly the laundry room) and one instance of the power going off for a little while here in the house; not sure why, but something got wet and overloaded a circuit), now as long as we survive the winds tonight, everything will be great! As I said, the weather here is never boring!!!

Walk Down Memory Lane

This is really a fun idea and I hope to see if you share the same memories I have.

Here are the instructions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot; anything you can remember.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

More photos--the proud uncles

Uncle Timothy and Uncle Jonathan on Kaya's birthday. Both look like real pros at holding babies don't you think?

Welcome, Kaya!!

Here are a couple of photos of Kaya. The first was taken shortly after she was born and the next one was going home day. I have more and I will try and post some more a little later today and Amy has them uploaded, so she will probably be posting soon, too.

Happy Day

It was a great day today...Amy had her baby at 11:20 a.m EDT. She is to be named Kaya Nicole. She weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches long. She is a beautiful baby with lots of dark hair. I took lots of photos of her at about 2 hours old and will be posting them in a day or so. Kalen has my digital camera right now, and I'm sure Amy will be posting lots of photos when she is back home also. Kaya is my 13th grandchild and I'm looking forward to the 14th when Marni and Andrew have their baby. I've heard it said that the best days are when babies are born and I'm not going to argue with that. Happy Happy Birthday little Kaya!!

Double Tagged

Okay, since I've been tagged twice, I guess I had better do this. Here's how to play this game:
Post the rules on your blog. List 2 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Joys: Children, grandchildren, wonderful friends

Fears: Getting cancer, going blind, dying (Sorry, Alison, I must have passed these fears on to you)

Goals: Being more relaxed in my calling (I get totally stressed giving lessons, and thinking about
all the things this calling entails.)
Get more excited about scrapbooking
Learn to knit socks
Lose about 35 pounds
Clean the house and get rid of a lot of clutter (Okay, I know this is 5 goals, but all are
important)

Current obsessions/collections: Knitting, really nice yarn (I love how soft it feels), losing
weight

Random surprising facts: I don't think this is very surprising, but I have a wicked temper (it's
apt to erupt at any time, especially when I'm driving). Fortunately,
I get over it quickly
Tendency to make snap decisions especially when I'm upset
I really don't like cooking meals (I enjoy baking or making just one
something, but I hate having to get a whole meal together and trying
to have everything at the right temperature at the same time ready
to dish up by a certain time--kind of stressful)

Okay, I tag Leesa and Amy (makes 3 times for her) and since Marni and Alison have already done this, that is all I can tag as this is everyone that reads my blog.

Updates

As most of you know, I am second counselor in Young Women's Organization and our activity for last Wednesday night was a pampering session at our young women's activity night. We went to Battle Creek to our YW president's beauty college and the yw had haircuts and the moms had facials and pedicures. Kayleigh got her hair cut nice and short and really likes it. We were also fed chocolate covered strawberries, cake, crackers and cheese, sandwiches, and punch. As you can see from the above photo, Kayleigh really loved the chocolate covered strawberries.

Next update: As you notice, I now have photos on this blog thanks to my wonderful children who all got together and gave me a digital camera for Mothers Day. Thanks to Timothy, he is giving me instructions on how to get the photos in the computer and then onto this blog (I'm sure that will be a long term process as I'm not very computer savvy). I had a wonderful Mother's Day and even though I didn't get a nap, I didn't have to cook--that was taken care of by Jonathan and Timothy and Kalen. We all went to Amy and Kalen's for dinner and a fun evening.
As you can see, the guys did a great job with our Mothers Day dinner--everyone enjoyed it very much so thanks to all for a wonderful day!

Random thoughts

Well, here I am again. Nothing too noteworthy this week except (drum roll please) the wonderful email I got from Andrew with a photo of Lilly in a very cute t-shirt that announced the forthcoming arrival of a new brother or sister for her! Hooray for grandchildren!!
The rest of the week has gone pretty much as usual except knitting group was here at the house today instead of in Marshall and speaking of knitting, I was just reading Alison's blog about scrapbooking. I read the comments about how everyone loves the digital scrapbooking and that does sound interesting and time saving, but I wonder if you're not missing a lot doing it digitally.
Part of the joy of knitting, for me, is not just creating something but the pleasure I get out of feeling the softness of the yarn and the smoothness of really nice rosewood knitting needles (a great Christmas present from Alison.) It is very much a sensory thing and I'm wondering if it's not the same with scrapbooking (I'm not much of a scrapbooker yet), but I would think a good part of the joy of scrapbooking is in all the little details and the "doing" of it, choosing the papers and embellishments, the cutting and pasting, feeling all the textures, etc. Maybe I'm wrong. I guess what I'm asking all you scrapbookers is: Is the joy in the finished project or in the doing of the project? Would love to hear your comments on this or any other craft projects you enjoy.
I may actually get to post a photo or two on here this weekend. I found out that Timothy has a digital camera, so he's agreed to take a few photos for me when he's off work and help me post them, so stay tuned...

My turn

Well, here I am...I guess it was inevitable that I would eventually join the blogging world, especially since I've been enjoying everyone else's blogs so much. I was talking with Alison the other day telling her of various goings-on and she noted that I had plenty of stuff for a blog, so she set one up for me and here I am. I don't have any photos yet, but we're working on that (I take lots of photos, but fortunately for all concerned, I'm not in any of them.)
A word about the name Where the Sidewalk Ends....it's NOT named for the George Strait song (Jonathan has been singing that ever since he heard the name of the blog). We have a really neat gas lamp in the front yard and it has a little plaque hanging on it that says "where the sidewalk ends" and the sidewalk does, literally, end and the end of the yard. I guess when the city was installing sidewalks this house was the last one on this side of the street and that's where the sidewalk stopped (even though there are a dozen more houses on this side of the street now, but no more sidewalk; so thus you have me (Mom) here where the sidewalk ends.
I will try and post fairly recently anything I think any of you would be interested in reading... so until next time...