St. Louis Trip - 05/09/2009

Last weekend we took a trip to St. Louis to celebrate my niece, Chelsea's high school graduation which also marked the end of home schooling 3 children for my sister-in-law Barb.

Chelsea's Senior Portrait

My nephew Jeremy and his girlfriend Laurel with Sean, Lindsey and Chelsea.

Hanging out with my brother Ronn, my cousin Marc, and his daughter Arianna

Josh is pleased that he has outgrown his cousin.

My nephew Sean and his wife Lindsey

On Sunday, we kicked off our first visit to Six Flags. Last year, we started buying season tickets for 4 of us. With season passes, you get a coupon book with several "bring a friend for free" tickets. Mother's day was the first of the free days, so with Chelsea's graduation on the same weekend, it was hard to pass up going to Six Flags. Getting season tickets turns out to be a relatively cheap way to entertain a family of 8 with the free days. It also is a good excuse to visit my brother's family in St. Louis.

Happy Mother's Day! Now let the fun begin!

Veronica takes me on her first drive. Be afraid, be very afraid...

Ahhhhhhhhh!

I have no idea who this super heroine is supposed to be.






Loren getting $5.00 worth of fun.

Another fun trip to Six Flags!

College of Veterinary Medicine Open House

On Saturday April 4th, I took the kids to the College of Vet Med's open house. The kids got to milk a cow and put their hands into a cow's stomach. Andrew was the only one who wouldn't try either of those. Their faces tell the story...

Piper

We sort of stumbled into a new dog last week. Friends of ours from church had taken in a stray running in their yard. After a failed attempt to find the owner, they asked us if we take this roughly 6 month old, male (yellow lab mix ?). Well, of course, the kids wanted him, but Andrea was not, and is not thrilled with the idea since she is there with him the whole day.

However, after some stern lectures about responsibility with the kids, and the fact that our friends took care of all the veterinary costs. We decided to give the dog a trial. He's peed in the house two times already, but otherwise he is a very good natured dog. Andrea might have another opinion. :)

T.J. named him Piper, and the name has stuck.

Andrew after getting an earful of dog nose.

Andrew and Piper

Healing, Peru and stuff

It's been a while since I have posted, so I thought it's time to catch up on recent events. Mostly, life is just moving along at it's usual rapid pace. However, there have been a few notable occurrences.

Healing...

First my clavicle is slowly healing. It's gone from being painful all the time, to numb or slightly uncomfortable. Actually, most of the discomfort is in my shoulder and not the collar bone. I just had my third check up last Wednesday, and the doctor is allowing me to go back to very light weight lifting. Also, he's sending me to physical therapy, finally. I'm posting the x-rays I just received from the clinic.

Here you can see the chain like shape of the titanium plate which is also visible through the skin.

In this one, the screws are clearly visible.

I'm not sure if this captures it, but the wavy shape of the plate protrudes through the skin. Also, you can see the nice scar I'm getting.

Since the plate is so visible the doctor said we could talk about removing it if it still bothers me in 6 months. However, this would require 3 extra months of recuperation to allow for bone to regrow where the screws had been. Otherwise, he said I could go on a Hagen Daz diet if I didn't want to see the plate anymore. Funny guy...

Perú...

Last year, upon hearing that our church, which we had just started attending, had two yearly mission trips, I suggested that they have one to Perú. Specifically, I had thrown out the idea of going to the orphanage, Hogar de Esperanza in Trujillo, where we adopted our daughters. The leader of adult ministry was up for the idea as long as I was the one who would lead it since I had all the contacts. So, I decided to step up and lead a mission team. Anyone who knows me would know that this is a little out of my comfort zone, but so far it's been a good experience. I'll be leading a team of 25 people to the orphanage on July 20th. I'm also working on having Loren go as well. Of course, the whole family would like to go, but the price for each person is $1600. And $1600 x 8 is a little too much. I've been busy having meetings and raising funds. (Thanks to all those who have donated!) The trip is beginning to take shape. We have the tickets for our flights already booked, and a hotel booked in Lima for one night on our return trip as well. There is a lot to figure out, and having 25 people go is, on one hand really cool, but it's also a little difficult to manage. I will be documenting our adventure on another blog at http://wrcc-peru2009.blogspot.com/. Stay tuned...

and stuff...

Unfortunately, I have not been immune to the down turn in the economy. My position which is funded by the NSF and other grants has been only 85% funded for 2010. Since I am not fully funded the University is required to give me what is called a T-Contract (Terminal Contract). This is, basically, a letter saying we might have to let you go in a year. I'm hopeful that the missing 15% will turn up in the next few months. But if not, I will probably slip into full panic mode come summer. Please pray for those funds to come my way, and if not that I'll find work in time before the T-Contract kicks in. I have 8 mouths riding on this...

Post surgery

I made it through surgery, but it was apparently more intensive damage than they had anticipated. The surgery was supposed to go for an hour and ended up taking over two hours. Also, I was supposed to go home the same day, but they ended up keeping me overnight. I'm on some pretty heavy pain medication, and so I haven't been doing much other than falling in out of sleep.

Waiting for surgery

I just changed the bandages, so I thought this would be a good time to take pictures of the damage.

No stitches, just this tape.

My huge bruise

Christmas, sleds, ice and broken bones

After opening presents at home with just the immediate family on Christmas morning, we made our annual Christmas morning pilgrimage to my sister's house in Arlington Heights, IL. My nephew, Michael Preissing, unfortunately, had to leave right when we arrived. Michael's mom (my sister, Peggy) and his sisters were in Rome, Italy this Christmas visiting their dad/husband, John Preissing, who is working for the United Nations in Rome for 3 years. They were all greatly missed!

Michael and the kids

My brother, Ronn, and my sister-in-law, Barb

We did the usual opening of presents and then enjoyed Lori's always scrumptious Christmas dinner. Later, we played a great new game called Partini. It was a riot mostly at the expense of my brother-in-law, John Putz, who was the butt of many balding jokes.






On the 26th, we took all the kids to go sledding at a nearby hill. Arlington had just had about a foot of snow. This hill was extremely icy, which made for some really fast rides. It was also as hard as a rock. Someone had decided to make a monster snow ramp at the bottom of the hill. Loren had accidentally veered right to it on her first run. It launched her up about twice her height. She miraculously landed on her feet, and didn't fall. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky.







My nephew, Johnny, at one point had taken me out as I was climbing up the hill, and we both took a ride down together on his sled. Later, I tried to pay him back as he was walking up. Being an agile 16 year old, he hopped over me while I careened right toward the ramp. I was not able to stop, and I ended sailing over the ramp, flipping over and landing full force on my right shoulder and my head. I got up feeling a pain I've never felt before. I was only able to stand for a few moments before becoming dizzy and nauseous. I sat down at the end of the hill, and was rescued by my brother-in-law, nephews and some strangers, who put me on a sled and dragged me to the car.

John took me the hospital where they determined that I broke my clavicle in two places and also split part of the bone. However, being "out of network", I had to wait until Monday to be seen by a doctor (3 days later). Today, December the 30th, I am scheduled for surgery where they will put in a metal plate.

Operation Christmas Child take 2 - The News Gazette

Our local paper, The News Gazette, picked up on the Operation Christmas Child story and the connection the girls' had with this cause in that they received the boxes while in the orphanage. Here's the article:
The News Gazette Story