Chicago, a Birthday, and Surgery

Last week was our spring break and Dave's parents came into town and we went over to Chicago for a couple of days. We had a lot of fun even though our trip was so short. The weather was PERFECT (we really lucked out) and we visited Shedd's Aquarium one day and went to Navy Pier the second day. The one night we were in Chicago I was able to see Wicked again with Dave's parents. It was GREAT and I still highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet! For all you friends in AZ - my sis. just let me know that it is coming to Gammage in about a year and tickets go on sale this summer so check it out! Here are some of our pict. from Chicago.

Rare family photo at the aquarium

We even got to watch the Dolphin Show!

Lauren at Navy Pier

Lauren, Dave and Grandma Folsom at Navy Pier

I love this pict. of Lauren at Navy Pier

Chicago Skyline

After we got home Dave had his surgery on his leg! His surgery went well but unfortunatley we had to stay in the hospital longer than we had hoped. He needed a PICC for his IV meds. he has to take for the next 6 weeks and his surgery was Fri. afternoon and there is no PICC Team over the weekend so we had to stay until Mon. to get his PICC and then the Dr's couldn't decide what meds. they wanted him on until too late in the afternoon to get it all set up with Home Health so we got to stay another night. Needless to say he was very glad to come home yesterday afternoon after 4 nights in the hospital! He is doing pretty good - just very sore and tired. We live by the clock and the next dose of pain meds. So the plan is IV meds. for 6 weeks and then another surgery to do another bone graft and hopefully kick this blasted infection out of his bone for good!

While Dave was in the hospital we celebrated Lauren's 4th Birthday and Easter! She had a lot of fun since Grandma and Grandpa were here to play with her. They took her to Chucky Cheese's one day and to Build-A-Bear and the Children's Museum another day. She loved all her new toys and we are now learning how to ride a bike! Now I just need to find us a very flat stretch of cement so we can practice this whole riding a bike thing! She loves wearing her helmet though and was really bummed we didn't have knee pads and elbow pads too. Lauren's birthday was also Easter and after having spent all day at the hospital and making a birthday cake, the Easter Bunny was a little too tired to do a big egg hunt so instead all of Lauren's goodies were in her basket and she had to go on a little treasure hunt to find the basket. She had fun and she loves telling anyone who will listen that the bunny did not hide her eggs, he hid her whole basket!

Opening her new Barbie from Grandma

In her Easter Dress (thank you grandma!). I hung streamers for her birthday and she wouldn't come out from behind them for a decent photo!

Lauren and her birthday cake! She really wanted a purple Barbie Cake so here is the finished product. Not bad for just about 1 1/2 hours of total decorating time.

Update

Well - it looks like this is about to be our home away from home again. Those of you who live in Iowa will recognize it but for those of you who aren't lucky enough to live in Iowa, this is The University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. Unfortunately Dave's leg started hurting again a couple of weeks ago and that is never a good sign. We have met with his surgeon and had x-ray's taken and it looks like the infection in his leg has come back AGAIN and they are going to go in and clean it out again. Of course this is very painful for Dave and he is very aware of how long it will take him to recouperate (having been through this so many times before) and start getting around again but we do consider ourselves very lucky to have such great Dr.'s so close and Dave has a great department at school who have told him to just take care of himself and they will cover the classes he teaches! And luckily last month he took and passed his major comps. so that is out of the way and he can work on his dissertation from home. So we are hopeful that he can stay on top of things from home and when he starts getting around better, he can start to go to campus more. Dave's parents were already planning on coming out to play with us this week for Spring Break so they are still coming and we are even going to go to Chicago for a couple of days still (Dave says the aquarium and museum's should have wheel chairs he can sit in and we can just push him around)! We are excited to go and see Chicago since all we have seen are the airports! Then he will have his surgery on Fri. and hopefully be home by Sunday. He would like to be home for Lauren's birthday and Easter! Luckily she will have her Grandparents here to play with her and keep her happy.
We will keep you posted on how everything turns out! We would really like to get this infection beat once and for all! We appreciate everyone's support and help - we are very lucky to have such good friends and family!

Speedy Typing

I saw this on someone else's blog and thought I would give it a try since I like to type. I think I did okay for only trying it a couple of times but it would have been nice to try to beat 90 words a minute! So check it out and see how fast you can type!

89 words

Speed test

P.S. I totally beat Dave - he got 60wpm (not bad).

Just Hanging Out

It has been so long since I updated our blog because we have just been hanging out - trying to survive the cold! February lived up to it's horrible reputation for being cold, snowy, and just plain miserable. But we have still managed to find some fun things to do this month. Of course there is always preschool!


This is Lauren and two of her little preschool buddies, Anna and Anne. The girls were my little "Chef's" and we made Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins and Rice Crispy Treats. The girls loved wearing their Chef hat's and aprons.


After being stuck inside the house all day I was trying to find a way for Lauren to get rid of some of her pent up energy so I had her jump on my bed. She had fun but she is pretty timid - she does not like to jump high or be crazy but she jumped for awhile!


We have also gone to the North Liberty Rec. Center for the Friday Tot Swim. It is just $1 and they have lots of fun toys for the kids to play with and the kiddie part of the pool only gets to 3 feet deep. The kids have a great time playing with their friends and doing something different.


Some of the kids enjoying the fun swimming!

One night Lauren came up to me and asked me to play Pirates with her. We had a lot of fun and cut out swords and she had me draw a mustache and beard on her face and we spent the night looking for treasures! It is a lot of fun to see what fun things she comes up for us to do.

So there you have it - this is basically what we have been up to. Saturday we went down to Nauvoo and that was great. The temperature even made it to the mid 40's and so Lauren and I were playing at the playground while Dave was in the Temple. And of course we went and looked out at the frozen Mississippi River and talked about how cold and hard it must have been for the pioneers to leave their beautiful homes in Nauvoo and to walk off into the unknown. We love being in the Nauvoo Temple District and being able to visit there often.

We do have some fun things coming up this month - Spring Break is in two weeks, Yeah! Dave's parents are coming out to visit us for the week and we will be going to Chicago for a couple of days. We are really excited to go and see Chicago since all we have really seen of it so far are the airports! And Lauren turns 4 this month! I can't believe I am about to have a big 4 year old. She is soooo excited and can't wait for her Barbie cake and is constantly telling us things she wants for her birthday. And of course there is Easter too. Lauren's birthday is actually on Easter this year so that will be a really fun day for her. So hopefully we will have some better blogs coming up!