First Day of School

Today was Noah and Anna's first day of school. Noah started Kindergarten and Anna started 4th grade, truly hard to believe! They both got up around 6:45 this morning, we left at 7:15 to head to school. It doesn't start until 7:45 (which seems so early after our summer of sleeping late!) but we weren't sure how bad traffic would be that time of morning. Turned out traffic was fine, it only took 10 minutes to get to their school from our house.

Once I got both of them to their classrooms, Amaya and I went into the sanctuary to wait for mass to start. They had a special first day of school mass at 8AM. It was really nice, but I couldn't believe how grown up Noah looked sitting there with his class. I promised I wouldn't cry on his first day of school, but I had to blink back a couple of tears watching him walk down the hall with his class after mass! They really do grow up quickly...seems like yesterday he was just a little guy toddling around the house with his binkie!

After mass Amaya and I went to Dollar Tree (her reward for being good in mass) and picked up breakfast at McDonalds. Then we went back to the school for her preschool orientation. She was so excited! Her room is huge and so nice, she was in awe of all the amazing toys. Her eyes were bugging out of her head and she was just flitting from one thing to another. She starts school next Tuesday. She will be going on Tuesday and Thursday mornings this year, and on Monday Wednesday Friday next year. I'll be sure to take pictures on her first day of school...if I can get her to leave her uniform on long enough! It's a shame their school uniforms aren't hot pink, she isn't too happy with the navy blue/white!

More later,

Rebecca

**Once again having trouble with this journal...it won't let me add pictures!! Will keep trying, check back later, sorry!**

Journal update

I know it's been too long since I've written anything, but this summer has been so incredibly busy! So, I give up on trying to post all of the pictures from our summer...I'll have to just start with right now and move forward!

Kindra started school on Monday. She is in 8th grade at Edison Middle School, and seems to be enjoying herself. She has joined the volleyball team, practices start tomorrow. She is also auditioning for a choral performing group called Inventions and is trying out for the school musical. She is in 2 advanced classes this year (Language Arts/Reading and Algebra I), and has 2 classes that count for high school credit (Algebra I and Spanish I). She is also taking 2 dance classes, hip hop and modern. Fall dance classes started this week.

Anna doesn't start school until August 28th. The Catholic schools are 10 days behind the public schools this year because of construction at the Catholic high school. She is currently on a break from gymnastics, they start back up the first week of September. She'll be practicing from 4-8pm on Monday, Thursday and Friday when they start up. She is also taking ballet, tap and jazz...all on Tuesday nights. She's a busy girl, but that's the way she likes it and as long as she can keep up with everything (schoolwork) we'll continue to allow her to pursue gymnastics and dance. We finally received her meet schedule for this fall/winter. If anyone wants a copy of the meet schedule, let me know and I'll email you a copy.

Noah left town last Monday to spend some time in Texas with Pavan's parents. Tickets to Dallas from Sioux Falls were very expensive with such short notice, so he flew out of Omaha, which is about a 3 hour drive from our house. Pavan's mom flew to Omaha, had a 3 hour layover and then flew back to Dallas with Noah. They will both fly into Minneapolis this Friday to bring him back to us, we will be spending the weekend in Minneapolis checking out the new amusement park at Mall of America. They changed it from Camp Snoopy to Nickelodeon Universe last winter. Noah starts school August 28th, kindergarten! He is taking tap class on Tuesday evenings, and will start a beginning boys gymnastics class the first week of September. One of the little boys up the street from us is going to be in the same gymnastics class, so they are both really excited about that!

Amaya starts preschool on September 2nd. She will be going 2 mornings/week this year, and alternates between being really excited to start and being upset that she can't stay home with me. I think once she sees her awesome preschool classroom she will be ready to go! She is taking ballet and tap classes on Monday nights, and she will also start gymnastics the first week of September.

As you can see, I have been staying busy running kids all over town and keeping track of everything! However, I also find time to meet new people and have started volunteering around town. The possibilities for all of us in Sioux Falls are amazing, and it finally feels like we are getting ahead instead of just treading water!

Enjoy the pictures...sorry I've not been updating them more often. Life gets in the way, haha.

Rebecca

**By the way, I've been trying for 2 days to update the journal. AOL seems to be having some problems, hopefully they will get them resolved soon!

Finally settled in Sioux Falls

Well it's been over a month since I last updated the journal, and we've been very busy! We are finally moved into our house in Sioux Falls and starting to establish a new sense of order and routine in our house! We LOVE Sioux Falls, we love our new house, and we are very happy with the move. The children have made new friends, I have already made friends, and Pavan seems to really be enjoying his new job...although he has been very busy compared to Rhinelander!

Kindra has made good friends with a girl two houses up from us. I had actually met this girls mother online before we moved to Sioux Falls, and we were shocked at how much we had in common. She is a nurse turned stay at home mom, they have three children, they only moved to Sioux Falls a couple of years ago. They came to our house and brought a pan of brownies a couple of days after we moved in. They were only here for about 5 minutes, but in that period of time Kindra had made friends with their 13 year old daughter Jessica. They have been joined at the hip ever since, although Jessica is currently away visiting her grandparents on the East coast. Kindra has also been taking dance lessons two nights/week. She is taking intermediate ballet and intermediate jazz on Monday nights and taking conditioning and hip hop on Tuesday nights. She is planning to attend volunteer training at the Sioux Falls Humane Society soon too so she can volunteer at the shelter. OH, by the way Kindra had a great time at camp.

Anna has been super busy at her new gymnastics facility. She is training 12 hours/week...from 4pm-8pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am so happy to have found this gym, this team and this coach. They are great with the kids, teach them amazing things and teach them how to do it right so they are safe. However, they do not push the kids too hard. If they have to miss gymnastics for dance class, no big deal. If they have to miss gymnastics because you are leaving town for vacation, no big deal. That's what I really love about it. Anna will be competing in 7 or 8 meets this fall/winter, some as far away as Rapid City, SD. I will update you on meet dates when they release that schedule. Anna is also taking dance classes. This summer she is taking jazz and ballet. The instructor is very impressed with her abilities, you know Anna has had 6 years of dance experience, and she's only 9 years old!

Anna had an amazing time at gymnastics camp. Annia Hatch was there helping coach for the week, she was an Olympic gymnast originally on the Cuban team but later on the American team. She won a silver medal on vault in 2004. Her husband, who was also her coach, was also there for the week, Alan Hatch. They were so nice, they must have signed 1000 autographs and posed for at least that many pictures! Anna got her picture taken with Annia and had both of them sign her brand new Lake Owen Camp leotard. I said gee Anna couldn't you have given them an old leo to sign, cause now you can't wear this one, I'm scared the signatures will wash off!! Oh well. (PS do a search for Annia Hatch on YouTube.com and check out her vaults, amazing!!! Anna was especially excited because vault and floor are her 2 favorite events)

Noah and Amaya love the new house because they have their own bedrooms! Noah has actually slept in his own room since our first night in the house, which shocked me. However, he is VERY possessive of his room and you MUST have his permission to enter his room or he freaks out! I like that his room is on the main level of the house along with the master bedroom, and the girls bedrooms are all downstairs. It gives all of them a break from each other. Noah is taking summer dance classes too, but the only class they offered for his age this summer was a tap/ballet combo class. He is pretty horrified to be taking ballet, and I told the teacher I wasn't going to buy him any ballet shoes because I doubt he will choose to take it in the fall!! He still wants to continue with tap classes though, so I will sign him up again. Amaya is taking the same tap/ballet combo class this summer, although I think it's a little too advanced for her. The teacher was nice enough to let me put both of them in the same class for the summer though to spare me another trip to the studio each week. She's very very nice, does an amazing job teaching the kids, is celebrating her 25th year of teaching dance this year.

I will update more later...going to post the pictures I have on this computer and then go get my laptop and post another entry with those pictures.

More later,

Rebecca

PS We have one more kitten who needs a home. The woman who was planning to take him suddenly is unable. He was the first one to find a home,and now needs to find one again. PLEASE email me if you or anyone you know are interested!!! I've exhausted all my leads and HATE to put an ad in the paper for some random stranger (or medical research company...) to take him.

Pictures of the new house

Like always, I am having a great deal of difficulty accessing the internet using the wireless connection at the camp ground. After an hour of messing around with it, I seem to have a connection for right now, so thought I'd attempt to upload some pictures of the new house. We closed on the house yesterday morning, after we dropped the 2 dogs and 4 cats off at a kennel in Sioux Falls. We've been insanely busy, and will probably be just as busy for the next month or so. If you try to call and can't get in touch with us, just leave a message or send me a text message or email. Honestly, finding time to talk is hard. I can always send a text or email no matter how loud and crazy things are in the camper!

My cell # 605-201-1882

Pavan's cell # 605-359-6972

More later,

Rebecca

 

Recital pictures

Sorry it's taken me this long to get these pictures added, I can't believe it's already Thursday! This week has kept me busy working on a to-do list that I've been putting off for months. First communion is over, dance recital is over (so dance class is over), gymnastic classes in Rhinelander are over...time to get down to business! I've been sorting through clothes and toys, hauling bags full of items to Goodwill, called to cancel all of our utilities in Rhinelander, called to establish utilities in Sioux Falls, etc. The next couple of months are going to be hectic, but it'll be worth the work.

Heard from our realtor in Sioux Falls that the fence is finished (6 ft cedar fence around the back yard) and the 6th bedroom has been completed. You know what that means? No more excuses for our friends and family not to visit! Seriously, we would love to have all of you come visit us! Sioux Falls is a great town with a lot to do, and is within 5 hours of the Black Hills (Mt.Rushmore!).

The kittens continue to grow, and are very entertaining! Noah and Amaya spend a lot of time in the loft playing with them. They are 5 weeks old now and are eating canned cat food and using the litter box already! I know I'm partial, but I think they are much smarter than other kittens, haha.

Gotta run, today I am cleaning out the toy room! Scary!

More later,

Rebecca

 

Update on Kittens

Wanted to clarify something....

Three kittens still need homes. The ones that are available have changed, as one family chose a different kitten than they had originally thought.

So, we still have both girl kittens (white with orange spots) and the orange kitten (Noah calls him O'Malley like the cat in Aristocats). Clark (will be renamed KC, isn't that funny!), Ramone have definite homes, and Sam has someone interested in him! Hooray!

Will post pictures from dance recital soon!

Rebecca

First Communion Pictures

Here are some pictures from Anna's first communion celebration today. It was a beautiful mass, and we've had a great day. Pavan, Tom and the children have been out on the ATV and in the kayaks, we had a cook out with some hand made brats from the Lake Tomahawk meat market, and let Anna open the gifts she'd received.

FYI...we have definite homes for 2 of the kittens, the black one and the orange/white male (Clark). Still need more homes, please email me if you know of anyone who'd like a kitten! (We do have a possible home for one other kitten, the white/black one)

More later,

Rebecca

It's always something!!

We've had a hectic week in our house, but every day brings us one day closer to our move to Sioux Falls, so that makes the long drives a little easier to take! Monday Anna had gymnastics in Rhinelander, Tuesday Noah and Amaya had dance in Merrill, Wednesday Anna and Amaya had gymnastics in Weston, and Thursday Anna had dance in Merrill. Only 2 more weeks of dance and then dress rehearsals and the dance recital, and dance will be over for the year.Next week is the last week of this session of gymnastics, but I went ahead and signed Amaya up for the next session since we'll keep having Anna in private lessons on Wednesday evenings. It would be very harmful for Anna to stop gymnastics for the next 2 months until we move to Sioux Falls, it would take her months to regain the skills and flexibility she would lose in that period of time.

We've had a busy week medically too. Last week I found a "lump", more like a huge knot in my right breast. Sorry to get so graphic, but thought I'd pass this information on to keep everyone informed. Monday morning I had an ultrasound of the breast, which didn't show anything. So, Thursday I had a mammogram. It also didn't show anything. So, the "lump" or knot is being attributed to fibrocystic changes, and my doctor has me taking Vitamin E and Oil of Evening Primrose, both are supposed to help with the swelling and pain. I'm just relieved it's nothing to be worried about.

Pavan had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon Monday morning about the continued pain and difficulty moving his left elbow. The xray looked ok but they have ordered an MRI next Wednesday to make sure that bone fragment hasn't separated. If it's just floating around, they will recommend more surgery. I'll keep you informed as to the results of the MRI.

Yesterday Amaya fell of the counter in the bathroom and split open her chin. I called Pavan and took her in to have it cleaned out and have him take a look at it. He glued it back together, but she fell again last night and split it open again!! So, we put some antibiotic ointment and a bandaid on it and left it at that. It's under her chin, so even if she has a scar, it won't really be noticeable. 

AND Kindra had to have her toe operated on again yesterday afternoon for the recurring ingrown toenail that's been plaguing her for the last 6 months. It was very swollen and infected again, so Pavan cleaned it up and cut back the toenail even more. She limping around today, but seems to be doing ok. The funny thing is that the pain medicine she's taking keeps giving her the hiccups!! She took the same medicine back in November when she first had the toe operated on, and would get hiccups several times a day. As a matter of fact, she's walking around the house right now trying to get rid of her hiccups before we leave for a Christian rock concert at the junior high!!

One more medical issue...the last steri-strips finally came off my leg, so Pavan was looking at how well it was healing. Turns out the surgeon left behind a 3 or 4 inch section of the worst part of the vein. It probably deflated during surgery and he didn't even realize he left it behind. But, it's pretty ugly and swollen now, so I am going to have Pavan remove it outpatient on Monday afternoon. Whew, no wonder I feel so tired, we've had a rough week!

OH I lied, I do have one more medical issue to tell you about. My grandfather (Grandpa Kenney, my mom's father) needs to have heart bypass surgery next week. I ask that you keep him, my grandmother, and our entire family in your prayers. One of my cousins is currently on her way from Oregon to Kansas City to be there for the surgery, along with her husband and 2 of her 5 children. Let us all pray for her safe travel.

The kittensare doing well. Three of the six have their eyes open now, and they looked utterly shocked! They have been getting more and more adventurous, crawling several feet away from Callie and the other kittens and then suddenly realizing they've gone too far and mewing so loud that we can hear them downstairs loud and clear! (they are all still living in the loft)

We've been enjoying continued warmer weather with more rain and thunderstorms this week. The snow is essentially gone now, and most of the ice on the lake has melted as well. Their are several ducks back on our lake, and today I spotted 2 loons down there. I will be sad to leave the lake behind, and all of the wildlife that we have enjoyed over the last 4 years. However, we are getting very excited for our move to Sioux Falls. We can always come back to Rhinelander to vacation!

More later,

Rebecca

 

 

Spring, finally!

I think Spring has officially arrived in the Northwoods! We've had temperatures in the 70s this last week, and several days of rain and thunderstorms. The combination of higher temperatures and rain have really melted the snow! If you drive through town you won't see any snow, but here in the woods you can still find some patches of snow in the protected areas that haven't seen much rain or sun.

We've also witnessed our summer animals returning to the Northwoods. Last week I saw a bald eagle on our way to dance class. We've also seen the osprey returning to their nests (those are the birds that next on those platforms the DNR has built on the top of some telephone poles in the area), and I saw a loon on Boom Lake yesterday. We have a couple of ducks on our lake, just swimming around the edges since most of the lake is still frozen over.

We are getting eager for our move to be over with, hard to believe that 2 months from now we'll be sitting in our new house! A man from the moving company is coming over this afternoon to take a look at what we have to move and quote us a price. We did find out that the hospital in Sioux Falls is going to pay up to $7500 of our moving expenses, which was a huge relief! That means the difference between us trying to pack up and move all but the heaviest furniture on our own, and paying a moving company to pack up everything and move it for us!

I set up an appointment for Kindra to tour the middle school in Sioux Falls the morning of May 9th. I'd been meaning to get her down there, and when I finally checked their school calendar I realized their last day of school is May 16th!! So we were suddenly in a rush to get down there in the next couple of weeks! We will leave here the afternoon of May 8th, tour the school the morning of May 9th and take care of a few other things while we are in Sioux Falls (mainly switching our cell phones to Sioux Falls numbers) and then head backhome Friday afternoon. The last teen night at the YMCA is Saturday, and Kindra really wants to be back here for that.

The kittens are doing well, growing fast. Their eyes are just starting to open, I bet they will be all over the place once they can see! As it is, a few of them have started venturing off from Callie. Amazing how they can always find their way back to her, considering they are blind and deaf for now! We have homes for the orange kitten and the black kitten for certain....still needing definite homes for the other four though. We've had some people that have expressed interest, and if they all come through then all of the kittens will have good homes.

Gotta run, planning to buy some potting soil and replant some of my houseplants today. Sure hope I can find a good spot for them in the new house, they have all thrived in the kitchen window in this house!

More later,

Rebecca

A few more pictures of the kittens...

All of the kittens are doing well. Callie has become quite the protective mother though, every time I try to hold one of the kittens for a minute, she runs out from under the bed and snatches it back! Earlier today I wanted to move all of the kittens out from under the bed so I could change the linens. Callie was grabbing the kittens and taking them back under the bed faster than I could get them out. I finally had to block the entrance with my body just to have a few seconds to throw some new towels under there! She's such a good mama! We'll take her hint and leave the kittens alone for now, certainly don't want to upset any of them.

If you look closely at the pictures, you can pick out all 6 kittens. One black, one orange, one white with black markings. The three white/orange kittens are all different. One of them looks to have fluffy hair, one has 2 rows of spots running down it's back, and the other has a short coat and an orange head. At least they are all different, when Sweetie Pea had her kittens they were all black with one tortie (my mom's cat, Jasmine). We had to make friendship bracelets to tie around their necks to tell them apart!

So far two kittens have homes, one with a friend of Anna and one with a friend of Kindra. Both wonderful families, so I'm very excited! One other kitten possibly has a home, so that leaves three! We will keep Callie.

Finally a calm evening around here. I didn't enroll Noah and Amaya in this session of swim lessons, so Thursdays are free for now. We will be working on Anna's science fair project tonight.

More later,

Rebecca

Update on kittens...

I spoke too soon! Amaya and I were just upstairs watching Callie and her kittens, and when I started counting heads, this time I counted 6!! So I pulled all of them away from Callie to make sure, and there are indeed 6 kittens! I guess she wasn't done having them yet when we checked on her this morning. There are now four speckled kittens (three with orange patches and one with black patches). Hoping some of them end up with multi colored patches like Callie. Also one black kitten and one orange kitten. Not sure if they are boys or girls yet, I might check on that later. They scream so loud when I take them away from their mommy! She's still purring though...wish all human mothers loved their babies as much as she loves hers!

If anyone wants one of the kittens, or knows of a good and loving person who would want one of the kittens, please email me at BeccaKC@aol.com. I will have them all checked by the vet and given their first set of shots (maybe 2 sets, I don't remember the ages they are due, I will call the vet today). The only things I ask is that they are spayed or neutered within a year, and that if for any reason you find you can no longer keep the cat you will let me know first!! I hate to think of any of them ending up dumped in the country to fend for themselves (like Callie was) or left in an animal shelter.

More later,

Rebecca

Kittens

Quick update...busy day today! Only been up an hour and already feel behind!

My surgery went well. Hard to see how much better my leg looks because of all the bandages and bruising, but I am happy to have that over with! I follow up with the surgeon in Wausau this afternoon. I would imagine it will be a few more weeks before I can start part 2 of this plan, which is injections to the remaining veins (the smaller ones that they couldn't remove during surgery) to cause them to shrivel up and hopefully disappear.

We had a couple of big snows last week for Pavan's parents to enjoy! The last one was about 8 inches, and Pavan's dad even got in on the action, running the snow blower to clear part of the driveway. The fun part is that with the warmer temperatures this week, Noah and Amaya can go out side and play in the snow for hours without getting cold! Strange time of year with 60 degree temperatures and several feet of snow still on the ground!

Well, the man who bought our house is apparently already selling it. He bought the house and all of the land with the intention of just keeping the land, making a few repairs to the house and selling the house. So, now we have to deal with the realtor coming in and out to show the house. The first showing is at 11AM today. Our maid hasn't come in a month, for various reasons, so we've been hurrying to get things cleaned up for the showing. The realtor is also taking pictures to put online with the listing. Very stressful considering I can't be on my feet for too long before my leg really starts to hurt. Oh, and that's another thing...the pain medication they gave me caused my heart to slip back into that funky rhythm I dealt with for about a year after Amaya was born. So after 2 doses of that, I had to just suck it up and deal with the pain sans medication! Easy to do as long as I can rest frequently and keep the leg bandaged tightly. Even though it's a pain having to deal with house showings, I am very thankful that we were able to sell the house so easily!

The cat we rescued from Lathrop had her kittens last night. They were still wet when we discovered them this morning, and we were all so fascinated with them! Callie was such a good girl letting us hold them and inspect them, but once they started to scream she started dragging them back into their hiding place (a cubby under the bed in the loft!). There is one black kitten, one orange kitten, and three spotted ones. Callie is a calico, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see if the spotted ones develop multi colored spots like her. So far one looks to have gray or black spots and two have orange spots. Let me know if you are interested in one of the kittens, they are all in need of GOOD AND LOVING homes! I will deliver them in a couple of months.

More later, better get the last of the cleaning done so we can head to the park later. Thank God for the warmer weather, around 60 all week here!

Rebecca

Anna's dance pictures

Anna got her tap pictures back last night. Still haven't heard when her ballet pictures will be taken. It's such a neat costume, they are dancing to a song from Mary Poppins and they all have Mary Poppins costumes, complete with a parasol. So pretty! Might be another month before I get those back though, but I'll scan them and share them with you when I get them.

We have an appointment on May 8th to have Anna's first communion portraits done. The sitting fee covers 4 people, so I plan to take all four kids in to have pictures done together while we're at it. Probably some of Amaya alone too...I'll post the proofs online so you can all decide which pictures you'd like to order. And remember, I have extra school pictures of Kindra and Anna. If anyone needs school pictures of them, please email me ASAP!!! I have 3x5, 2x3 (big wallets) and small wallets available. Whatever is left over next month the kids will be giving out at school with their new address and phone number and email address so they can stay in touch with their friends after we move.

Big news from Anna....she did her first reconciliation this morning after the school mass! Reconciliation (better known as confession) is the second sacrament of initiation. The first was baptism, which she did last May.  The second is reconciliation, and the third is communion (which she will be doing on May 4th). These are all very sacred and special moments, and I ask that you keep Anna in your thoughts as she prepares for these events.

A couple of prayer requests...first one is for a little boy named Tyler Olson. He is the grandson of my Uncle Richard and is currently in Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. He is a very sick little boy, he and his family need all of our thoughts and prayers. Also, I ask that you all remember my surgery on Monday. It's not a big deal, but I would appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers!

More later,

Rebecca

Dance pictures

Noah and Amaya got their dance pictures back last night, so I thought I'd scan them to let you all see. Noah's dance is Rappin' Tappin' and Amaya's dance is Barnyard Boogie. She's the only pig!

We should get Anna's tap pictures back next week, but her ballet ones haven't been taken yet due to a delay in costume delivery.

I have wallet sized photos for everyone who wants one. If you want to order a bigger copy, let me know. A 5x7 is $14.50 and an 8X10 is $17.50. Email me at BeccaKC@aol.com.

Also, I ordered some extra copies of Anna and Kindra's school pictures. If anyone didn't get a picture just let me know and I'll email you with what sizes I have available.

One more thing...here's a link to the house we've made an offer on in Sioux Falls. The second picture on the bottom row is the laundry room, wonderful!

http://hjnteam.com/property_dtl.asp?type=RS&propid=37000

More later,

Rebecca

spring break

The last week has been a very busy one for us! We left Rhinelander on Saturday, March 18th for a few days in Sioux Falls. Our time there was very hectic...on Sunday we attended Mass and then looked at houses all day. Sunday evening we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Famous Daves! Monday morning we met with the principal at Holy Spirit School for Noah and Anna to tour the school. Then we looked at two of the houses again to narrow down our choice, had lunch at Chuck E Cheese, and toured All American Gymnastics so Anna could meet her new coach and learn more about the facility and the team. Pavan's flight back to Rhinelander was canceled Monday due to a medical emergency, so we spent the evening at the mall in Sioux Falls. Tuesday morning his flight was canceled again so we all went out to breakfast before I started to drive to KC with the kids. It was a nice easy drive, about 5 1/2 hours to the house in Lathrop from Sioux Falls. Pavan finally made it back to Rhinelander around midnight Tuesday/Wednesday!

We had a nice time in Kansas City and even got to enjoy some 70 degree weather! We had a few cook outs on our new grill and spent a lot of time outdoors playing in the huge yard! On Easter we attended Mass in Liberty and then had an Easter egg hunt and  family dinner at our house. Monday morning we loadedup and headed back to Rhinelander. It was a long drive, and the last hour was through heavy snow and 40mph winds, welcome home! Today has been hard, dealing with all of the snow after experiencing spring in KC!

One more thing, our house and land in Rhinelander is officially sold! Closing took place Thursday...so now we are in a perfect position to buy a house in Sioux Falls before we move. Hopefully we can close on the house there around the middle of May so we can have plenty of time to move everything before July.

More later, gotta run! Vacation is officially over, back to our hectic schedule.

PS My surgery is scheduled for 1:30PM on Monday, April 7th.

Rebecca

A Few Pictures

Here are a few pictures taken this week. Tuesday night was dance pictures for Amaya and Noah. Amaya's costume is a pig, her class is dancing to Barnyard Boogie so there are all different animal costumes. Amaya is the only pig. Noah's class is doing Rappin Tappin so it's supposed to be a hip hop costume. There are 5 or 6  boys in his class, and they think they are pretty cool! Once I get the pictures back, I'll try to scan them so you can see the entire classes.

Last night Amaya had her first gymnastics class. She had a great time! They don't do much that actually resembles gymnastics at this point. Anna had her private lesson with Coach Xang while Amaya was in her class. He has Anna doing some amazing moves, especially on vault!

Gotta run, Anna's dance pictures are tonight so I'm rushing around to get some things done around the house before we have to leave. Seems like my time at home has been very limited lately, running around way too much! It will be such a relief when we move to Sioux Falls and I'm not driving so far to get to everything.

More later,

Rebecca

Quick update

I apologize for the lack of pictures lately. Our main computer crashed and is currently being repaired, we should have it back sometime this week. It seems to take a lot longer to add pictures using my laptop, but I had some free time today so thought I'd add a few before you forget what the kids look like!

Just a quick update to keep everyone on top of our quickly changing lives! Pavan returned to work this morning, after two months at home. He will continue doing physical therapy every Wednesday afternoon for now, but seems to have healed nicely after surgery. As before, the broken elbow is bothering him more than his shoulder...but the surgeon has encouraged him to give it a full year to feel back to normal.

Kindra had her solo/ensemble competition in Merrill, WI over the weekend. She performed in a triple trio and a soprano solo. She got ratings of "1" on both performances, which is the best score. They did such a great job!

Kindra is also preparing for a forensics competition next month in Wausau. They are practicing during lunch to present short speaking pieces during the competition. She continues to amaze me with her outgoing personality and self confidence! I think these traits will serve her well when we move. I am so happy we will be moving to a school district with so many opportunities for the children, they are all so talented!

Anna is preparing to do first communion on May 4th. This is a very big deal in the Catholic church, and an amazingly beautiful and touching ceremony. I encourage everyone who is able to come to Rhinelander to watch her take her first communion. Right now she is completing her first communion booklet, which is teaching all of us a lot about Catholicism and the symbolism behind the various parts of mass. We will attend a workshop with her in April to finalize first communion plans. She will also be doing her first reconciliation in the next few weeks, which is her first time doing confession....for those of us who don't know much about the Catholic way of doing things! We have to work through a book prior that that too, she should bring it home from school today. Jesus said we should come to him as the little children do...Anna is a perfect example of that. Her amazing faith, and the way she approaches life can serve as a lesson to all of us!

Noah and Amaya are growing up so quickly! Noah will have his kindergarten screening this Friday. Can you believe he will start kindergarten in the fall! He is continuing with swim lessons on Thursday afternoons, and dance class on Tuesday evenings. Amaya is also doing swim lessons and dance class, and will start gymnastics lessons a week from Wednesday! She is so excited about starting gymnastics, and has already learned a lot from Anna.

We have some really exciting news to share about our house here in Rhinelander...we've sold the house and all 72 acres to one of our neighbors!! He had initially been interested in buying two lots we were listing for sale. Then we ran into some significant problems with our mortgage company. They refused to let us sell any of the land, even though only 25 acres were listed on the mortgage. So, we were back at square one. Tons of paperwork to fill out, appointments with an accountant and an attorney, everything put on hold AGAIN! And only 90 days to get rid of this mortgage or we wouldn't be able to buy a house in Sioux Falls! Very stressful. So Pavan called Bruce and asked if he'd be interested in buying everything. Bruce talked with his wife and his son, and they came through for us. He's getting quite a deal, and we will have to cough up our entire savings to pay off the remainder of the mortgage, but we will finally be FREE of this place!!! It's a relief, but also a little sad. We love this piece of land, and will be so sad to let it go...but there are great things ahead for our family, and this is the first step. We will no longer be prisoners to this house! Hooray!

I'd better get going. The girls will be home from school in an hour, and I plan to have supper ready to eat early tonight. Then I"ll load everyone up and head to Wausau for gymnastics. It's quite an adjustment with Pavan being back to work. Looking back, I can certainly see God at work in our lives these last couple of months. Up until this week, Kindra has had practice for solo/ensemble after school two or three days/week. We've also had gymnastics and dance three days/week out of town. If Pavan hadn't have been out of work, it would have been impossible for me to do all of that on my own. Now the count down is on until we are in a city that will offer us everything we need, within 10 minutes of our house!  

Oh, a few dates you need to know....

Dance recital is May 17th and 18th....if you are planning to attend, I have to know by April 1st so I can buy plenty of tickets.

Anna's first communion is May 4th at the 9AM mass...please try to come if at all possible.

Spring break for the children is March 15th-23rd...I am planning to take them to Sioux Falls for a few days and then head to KC for the remainder of spring break, including Easter.

I am hoping to have thelong awaited surgery on my leg in March or April, just waiting for a call from the surgeon to schedule the actual date. Want to be sure I have plenty of time to heal before we start really moving stuff to Sioux Falls. As it is, I am planning to rent a storage unit in Sioux Falls when we go there over spring break, so we can start boxing up items and moving them as we are able. Living in a hotel for 2 months showed us just how many of our belongings we can do without on a daily basis!!

More later,

Rebecca

Christmas pictures, finally!

Here are the Christmas pictures I've been promising you!

Lots going on with our family...Pavan is healing well following his shoulder surgery. He is doing physical therapy two times each week, and every day at home. Last week we had a scare when the physical therapist had some concerns about his elbow, but xrays showed that it continues to heal, even though it is causing him considerably more pain and trouble than his shoulder. The orthopedic surgeon told him it could be a year before he can fully extend the elbow without pain.

All of the children are doing well, keeping busy and already looking forward to some warmer weather! I guess after 4 winters in Wisconsin, the cold and snow start to get old!

Our big news is that Pavan has accepted a position with a surgery group in Sioux Falls, SD...so we will be moving this summer! We've been looking for a position in a bigger city, and were hoping it would get us closer to family. But it also had to be a position that would advance Pavan's career. The Sioux Falls opportunity will do all of that. Sioux Falls has a population of close to 200,000 people. It is a beautiful town, one we actually visited during our vacation last summer. The public school system is amazing, all of the children's activities will be available right in Sioux Falls, and we will be only 5 hours from Kansas City. Sioux Falls has a great airport, bigger than the one in Rhinelander but still a small airport that is very easy to navigate. And the group Pavan is joining is amazing! He will take a significant pay cut for the first couple of years, but that is to be expected while he builds his patient base. The group is made up mostly of young surgeons who are raising young families. They are all brilliant men, and very friendly too. (We spent a weekend in Sioux Falls interviewing, had a great time!) The other great thing is that the hospital is encouraging the surgeons to become fellowship trained, so they are willing to let the surgeons leave for one or two years and still pay them a salary while they are doing a fellowship! Pavan has hopedto do a fellowship for a long time, but we could never figure out how to survive financially for him to do that. So, this is truly an answered prayer!

This is the website for the group, look at everyone's bio to learn more about them.

http://www.surgicalinstitute.com/home.html

Gotta run, not enough hours in the day lately!

More later,

Rebecca

crazy, but slowly returning to normal

The water pictures are a few Tom took at the hotel in Marshfield. He watched Noah Amaya and Kindra while Anna had her appointments and procedure last week, and was able to take some awesome pictures underwater with his new camera. Anna couldn't have anything to eat or drink until after her procedure, which wasn't even scheduled until 2:15PM!! So, we kept her busy in the pool to keep her mind off of how hungry she was!

I know, I still owe you Christmas pictures...maybe I'll get a chance to do that this weekend!

We have been receiving a lot of phone calls and emails, and I am sorry I've not been able to get in touch with everyone. We have been incredibly busy, but things are finally  headed in the right direction, I think!

Pavan is healing nicely after his surgery last Thursday, but he is still having a lot of pain in his shoulder. Now that he's having to rely more on his left arm, he is also having more pain in his broken elbow. Poor guy! To top it all off, he's going crazy sitting around the house all day every day...but when he tries to do much of anything, he ends up hurting from the effort! He is able to work on the basic physical therapy exercises that were given to him just after his surgery, and hopefully we'll get some organized PT set up when he sees the surgeon next week for his follow up appointment.

Anna is feeling much better, in spite of all of our efforts, really! She started feeling better two days before her appointment in Marshfield, but we went ahead with the appointment and the EGD since this has been going on for 3 months now. The doctor we saw was amazing, very nice, very knowledgeable. I felt very comfortable letting him do the scope, and knew if anyone was going to give us some answers, he was the guy! We got biopsy results back yesterday. The biopsies in the stomach showed chronic active gastritis. Gastritis is sort of a catch all phrase that describes an inflammation of the stomach lining, it can be caused by many different things and we aren't really sure what set Anna's off to begin with (testing showed it was NOT H.Pylori). But once this inflammation started the stomach acid was very irritating to that inflamed tissue and never allowed it to heal.

 The biopsies in the esophagus showed erosive esophagitis. They could tell that the lining of her esophagus had sloughed off recently, and could see new cells beginning to grow back. So when the gastritis was really bad, it caused the stomach acid to enter her esophagus over and over again, causing that tissue to erode. OUCH! No wonder she was in so much pain!

Anna is taking prevacid for the next three months to significantly reduce the amount of stomach acid she produces, allowing the gastritis and esophagitis to resolve. Hopefully this will take care of the problem. If she continues to have symptoms when she is taken off the prevacid, we will have to go in for further testing. But for now, she is back to normal, so we are taking things one day at a time!

Oh, one more interesting thing we learned is that Anna is definitely not lactose intolerant, they were able to test the enzyme levels in her stomach and determine that, isn't that neat!

Well now that Christmas Break is officially over, and everyone is feeling better, we are back into the full swing of things with the children's activities. Monday nights we drive to Weston, WI for gymnastics lessons for Anna. It's an hour and a half down, and hour and a half in class, and an hour and a half back home. Tuesday nights we have dance class for Anna, Noah, and Amaya in Merrill, WI. It's about 50 minutes to get there, 2 hours of lessons, and 50 minutes back home. Wednesday it's back to Weston for gymnastics again...Thursday Noah and Amaya have swim class at the YMCA. Every other week we try to get Anna back down to Weston for a private lesson and open gym for a few hours. And on Saturday we all crash, haha! It will be nice if we can ever find a job in a bigger city...what would I do with all my free time if their classes were only 10 minutes away!!

Kindra is keeping busy, as always. She is attending a meeting after school today to look into joining the forensics team, which is drama and debate. I think she'd do great at both of those activities...Lord knows she's dramatic, and loves to debate!

Better get going, have a few errands to run before I pick up the kids from school.

More later,

Rebecca

Anna

I just wanted to let you all know what is going on with Anna, as the next few days will be very busy and we might be hard to reach.

Anna has had a horrible couple of days. Up until now, the stomach pain has only been at night and she's functioned normally all day until around 3 in the morning. Then she'd wake up with horrible stomach pain, would eventually vomit, and would then be fine and head back to bed for the rest of the night. However, the last few days she has had the horrible stomach pain all day, with it getting nearly unbearable at night. She has not been able to keep down food or drinks for the last 48 hours, and is pretty worn out and weak at this point. Last night she started having muscle spasms all over her body too, I'm sure from an electrolyte imbalance from not eating.

This morning Anna went in for an upper GI study. Basically they had her drink some contrast and then took xrays to watch it move through her system. It didn't take long, and they didn't find anything wrong. She managed to keep down half a banana and half a carton of juice after the test, and I dropped her off at school at 930 with instructions for them to call me immediately if she started having stomach pain. No call so far, so that's reassuring.

When I got home, Pavan was on the phone with a pediatric GI doctor in Marshfield, WI (about 2 hours from here). He agreed to see Anna Friday morning at 845 and is also going to do an EGD (a scope to take a look around and do some biopsies...she will be asleep for it all) at 1PM Friday. So, we will head down to Marshfield Thursday evening and stay at a hotel there Thursday and Friday nights. If you need us, try my cell phone. 715-401-0095 If I don't answer, leave a message and I will try to call you back.

Pavan is scheduled for surgery on his right shoulder tomorrow morning at 830AM. I"m sure he will be in a lot of pain for a few days, but he says he'll be fine to come to Marshfield with us tomorrow evening! Thank God, we were able to reach a friend of ours from Kansas City, who is on his way to help with the children for the next few days. I don't know what I'd do otherwise since Pavan won't be able to help much, and I really need to be with Anna. Thank you Tom!!

More later,

Rebecca

 

Another busy month...

Quick update...we've had a very busy month! Moved back into the house the first week of December, were only here a few days before I flew to KC with Noah and Amaya to close on the house in Lathrop and get things ready for Christmas. Came back to Rhinelander for 3 days, then left with the whole family to spend the holidays in KC. Pavan flew to TX for a few days to visit with his brother Duemani and his father between Christmas and New Years. On January 1st, Pavan fell off a ladder and broke a bone in his left elbow! To make matters worse, he was scheduled for surgery on his right shoulder on January 3rd! His elbow seems to be healing quickly and he is going ahead with surgery on the shoulder this Thursday, Jan. 10th.

I have an appointment with a surgeon in Wausau on February 6th for some testing on my left leg, hopefully in preparation for my long awaited surgery! Was hoping to get the surgery done before Pavan headed back to work, but I've had several offers of help from friends and family if I end up having surgery after he goes back to work. Just hoping to get it done before this summer...getting excited at the thought of walking on the beach or wearing shorts without constant pain and people staring!!

We have signed Anna up for gymnastics classes in Wausau twice a week on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Also hoping to take her down for a private lesson and open gym every other Friday. It's a huge commitment but she has an amazing gift and we were at the point where we had to choose to get the training she needed or basically turn our backs on her gift. Still looking at the option of moving to a bigger city so we don't have to keep drivingso far for these sorts of things, but finding the right opportunity has proven harder than we thought!

Noah and Amaya are doing amazingly well with swim classes. Noah actually was told he could skip the next level and starts a class 2 levels higher than where he was! Amaya also passed her level after only one try and will move up to the level Noah is leaving. Their new session of classes starts this Thursday. Noah will be in a class with much older children, but they just couldn't see leaving him in the level for his age when he's literally swimming circles around the other kids!

Kindra is keeping busy with all the typical activities of a 13 year old girl! She is working hard in school with her advanced math class really giving her a hard time. She is finally challenged by her school work and isn't sure what to do with that! I am so proud of her though, she is so responsible and even gets help from her math teacher during study hall when necessary. She's still getting As in all of her classes, and is busy preparing for solo/ensemble chorus festival in Merrill next month.

We took Noah and Anna to the doctor this morning. Noah needed a follow up hearing test since he failed the test in both ears when he went in for his 5 year well child exam. At that time he had horrible infections in both ears, so it was understandable that he failed the hearing tests! This morning he passed the test in his right ear, but still failed in his left ear. Looks like he still has fluid in his left ear, it's not infected but it's keeping him from hearing clearly. So, we will take him back in 2 months and try again! If he still is having trouble hearing in that ear, he will have to see an audiologist for an official hearing test and maybe the ENT doctor to figure out what's going on!

Anna went to see the doctor because she's been waking up in the middle of the night with a horrible pain just above her belly button. Some nights she will throw up and then she's fine. This started a couple of months ago, but has been getting worse the last couple of weeks. We started giving her Pepcid a few days ago, and that has really seemed to help. The pediatrician said it sounds like reflux, but we did some blood work this morning and they are scheduling her for an Upper GI study to rule out any structural problems in her GI system. We'll see what the tests show, and may end up seeing a pediatric GI doctor down in Wausau.

Enjoy the pictures, hopefully things will calm down around here soon so I will have time for more detailed and more frequent entries! (by the way, I have only included pictures from December 1st until the 20th in this entry...too many otherwise! I will add another entry with pictures from Christmas and New Years)

More later,

Rebecca