X-Rays and Ultrasounds

This week was Kyle's finals week for this quarter and so he was busy all last week studying like a mad man and getting pretty stressed out - even making himself sick with lack of sleep and nerves! Luckily, we have some awesome home-teachers who offered to come over and give him a blessing on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday he had his most difficult tests and he did great! So, Tuesday he decided to take a bit of a break and go play church basketball...

Kyle came back home about an hour later and said he thought he needed to go to the ER! I thought he'd injured his already messed-up knee, but apparently he was guarding someone and he jumped really high, but the other guy "faked" and bent down and, inadvertently, swept Kyle's feet out from under him. Kyle landed on his back with his left arm out behind him and... "pop".

So, we called a good friend who came right over and stayed at our house so we didn't have to wake up Meg and take her with us. Sure enough, Kyle broke his "navicular" bone in his wrist. He had to be put in a temporary cast and we were to make an appointment to have a more permanent cast put on a couple of days later. We got home from the hospital around 1 a.m.

It was good fortune that Kyle's test on Wednesday was on-line and was very easy so that he didn't have to spend a lot of time studying while he was on the narcotics. He did well on that test also.

So, on Thursday we all went to the doctor...first, to my OB appointment, where we heard the baby's heartbeat (I cried) and saw it waving its little arms and rolling over. No telling yet what the gender is (too early), but it was fun to show Megan her little sibling. She thought we were pretty funny for putting "jelly on mommy's belly". The one picture the doctor let us have isn't very good, so I'm not going to post it because I can hardly tell what is what. The one surprising thing is that my due date got moved up 4 days, so that was exciting to hear.

After the OB visit, we had just enough time to make it to Kyle's doctor appointment for the new cast. Meg and I were feeling hungry though, so I took her to the McDonald's around the corner so she could play and not have to be in another waiting room. Kyle walked over to the McDonald's after he was done talking to his doctor but...he was wearing the same cast! He has to have surgery!! Ugh...

So, next week is Kyle's (much deserved and highly anticipated) spring break and what will we be doing? Well, on Tuesday Kyle will see a different specialist about his messed-up knee and then on Wednesday he will have surgery on his hand...some break!

Though this is not a fun experience for him, we both recognize that the timing of such an incident could not have been better so that he hasn't suffered in school and won't have to take any extra time off to heal. We know we are very blessed and are grateful for everyone how has been so supportive. We have great friends and neighbors who have stepped in and offered to help and dropped off treats and done our dishes...THANK YOU!

It's A Lemon!

At 14 weeks today our baby is about 3 & 1/2" long, about the size of a lemon, but weighs only about 1 & 1/2 oz. Apparently it can make lots of facial expressions and can now pee as its little kidneys are working. We will not know what we are having for another 4 to 6 weeks, but I do have my first ultrasound next week, so pictures are coming! The morning sickness is coming and going. On Tuesday I could hardly get off the couch all day without running to the bathroom, but yesterday I was up and energetic and feeling great...so, who knows what tomorrow will be like? I can't wait for the sick part to be over and for the kicking to begin because then I will know it is all worth it and can get excited. I'm not thrilled about weight-gain again. I have been working hard and have continued to lose weight so far and my hope is to just maintain my weight as much as possible throughout the pregnancy...that is my hope anyway.

Kyle is busy studying for his finals this week, so please keep him in your prayers. We will be very glad when next week is over. Then it is on to a nice spring break and a new quarter which we hope will be a little less stressful for him because he will finally be rid of the dreaded bio-chem. I am proud of how hard he works and I know that it will all pay off. He has secured a position as an anatomy TA (teacher's assistant) and so is excited to be doing more dissecting over the summer. He's especially excited because several of his good friends got anatomy TA positions as well, so they will get to goof off, er, I mean work together...hahaha.

Megan keeps saying she wants a baby sister...though I don't think she understands what that means. She is still the same sweet, loving little thing she has always been and gets smarter every day thanks to a love for books and the tv show "Word World". She surprised me the other day by correctly identifying the letters "T" and "O". I think she'll be a little smarty like her daddy.

Hooray for LIHEAP!

So, after we had been gone for 10 days in December with our heat turned down to 65 degrees, we got our power bill and it was over $150! Since then, we have been living in sweaters and blankets with the heat set at 69 degrees but our power bill came and was $177!!!

I had heard of LIHEAP (a government program to help low-income families with utility bills) in the past from friends but every time I called them I couldn't get a straight answer about anything and they kept telling me I could not apply yet...grrrr...

Anyway, so today the LIHEAP people were at Kyle's school and so we quickly gathered everything together and ran over there during lunch and got it all set up. Now we will hear back in 30 days if we are approved (which the lady there told us we were but we have to wait for the letter in the mail) and then we will have a $460 credit on our account to help us pay for our power. This means that if our next bill is, again, $177 I could send only $77 and use $100 of our credit and then have $360 to use later on in the months to come. It is meant to be used during these extra cold months.

I am so grateful for programs like this that allow us to live comfortably even though we have no money! I just know we have a loving Father in Heaven who is watching out for us. We have always been blessed with what we need and I know He will continue to provide a way for us while we are on this journey.