Phase Three

Hola!

Well, another milestone for Kara this week-- Let's recap.

First it was the Nightmare on Memorial Day: Broken leg -- 7 sheets of drywall, roughly 400 lbs. fell on her leg and broke both bones a few inches above her ankle.

Phase one: huge thigh cast, heavy-heavy, using a wheelchair for the last 3 weeks of school.

Phase two: shorter cast, below the knee--MUCH lighter, mostly on crutches but sometimes in the wheelchair. And waterproof! Swim, shower--get in the water and it's fine.

Now, for phase three. Last Thursday (drum-roll, please)...she got the cast cut off...

...and she got an "Aircast," like a ski boot with an air bladder in it. She can inflate it, or deflate it to her own comfort. She can take it off to SLEEP at night! Yessssssssssss! If she's just sitting around for awhile on the computer, or reading, or watching a movie, she can take it off. Or if she's in the water to shower, or in the swimming pool to play (gently, still, no horseplay or serious racing/pushing off the side or anything).

The amazing thing for me is to look at the xrays and see actual growth. Yes, even in this past month, her bones have been growing together and over time will grow straight again. You can see right at the break, little spider-web-looking new growth is filling in. (Go ahead, enlarge it--it's really cool!)

This aircast will be on for at least 4 weeks. (Yes, that will pretty much be her WHOLE summer, sigh...) But we are happy for the good news on growth. She walks around withOUT crutches, and that's pretty cool, too.

Here is her cast-less leg. Her healthy leg has a calf--just by walking around each day, your calf muscle stays toned. She hasn't used the other calf for 6 weeks, so it kind of disappeared.

In Other Whitesell News, David gets to go to a Leadership training this week in Phoenix, with 6 other students from his school. The rest of us will drive to Washington D.C. on Tuesday, and he'll meet us later in the week. He and Frank will attend a couple of days of the Scout Jamboree while the rest of the family tours a little.

Frank and I spent Saturday in the garage fighting mold and mildew: throwing stuff away, making donation piles and putting previously boxed items into plastic bins.

(Did you ever wake up and say "Gee, I sure wish I could go through all the vivid and tedious MOTIONS of moving, without actually moving?" If so, you have got to try this! It's such a rare treat... :0) )

Stay cool this week! Kari

New York excursion

Hello!

We drove in last night from a few days' road trip to New York! Not the city, this time. We'll save that for another vacation. We drove "Upstate."

PALMYRA. We started out with Palmyra, a tiny little village, which has an annual pageant. This show, depicting different scripture stories, has cast members dress up in ancient time period costumes. With 800 in the cast, a huge set up on the hill, and 6000 chairs down on the field below, it's pretty impressive!

There are also a lot of church history sites right around Palmyra. We got to visit them during the day -- the Smith family home, and the printing press building where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed.

Then we saw the pageant that night.

NIAGARA FALLS. After Palmyra, we had to zip up to the border, and visit Niagara Falls National Park. Frank and I had been there previously (and I went with my family when I was in college, too). But we wanted the kids to go, and I could actually visit often and not be tired of it. What a beautiful place! It's a popular spot for people from all over the world. But even with so many tourists, there are enough trails and activities that we didn't feel like it was too-too crowded.

The Canadians may be a bit biased, but in this case I think they are right...the Canadian view is better. If you can, you should take a passport and view the falls from the Canadian side -- you can see more of them. Also, New York has not built up hotels and tall buildings RIGHT next to the falls as much as Canada has. If you stand in Canada and take pics of New York, your photos will have more trees and fewer neon-sign buildings.

The American Falls are the straight stretch, then Bridal Veil Falls are the small ones to the right of American Falls. Horseshoe Falls curve around at the other end, like a horseshoe.

It's all beautiful, though, either side. They light up the falls at night, and 3 nights a week they do fireworks over the falls. Frank took some great night-time shots. Here's one of them.

Here is everybody before our "Cave of the Winds" walk, where you get ponchos and sandals to walk right under the falls.

We also rode the "Maid of the Mist" boat. It takes you into the mist of the Horseshoe Falls.

We had good weather for the trip--only got rained on when we were driving a few times.

We have such beauty in this country. I could visit national parks every week! This one was also very clean. With so many people visiting, that was a pleasant surprise.

Another perk on this trip: no stomach flu. :)

Have a great week! Kari

Time Away with the Fam

Hola!

Well, we made it back. My family had our every-five-years-or-so family reunion at Aspen Grove Family Camp in Utah! I put our backdrop on the header. Just beautiful.









Of course there are tons of activities at a family camp, and the best part was that I didn't have to cook! :) One of Teresa's highlights was the High Ropes course:

















The cousins tried out slingshots.






One of Kara's highlights was being in the pool--yes, her cast is truly waterproof! Unlimited time in the water, if she wants.








We took a morning to go horseback riding.

















And here is Frank playing horseshoes...he's actually pretty good.











The flights to and from were of course loaded with adventure, from construction detours getting us lost so we almost missed the first flight, to delayed flights later in the day, to losing our luggage! Luckily, the losing luggage was on the way BACK, so we could just come home and have them bring it to us another day.

The one big bummer was the stomach flu. :( We hit the very unusual week where stomach flu spread like wildfire through the whole camp, for Pete's sake! Our week, there were a total of 450 campers attending. Probably 75% of the campers caught this silly stomach flu at some point during the week. Of our 21 who went, only 3 stayed healthy. All the others were sick in bed for 24-48 hours during the week sometime. Kara's age group had 22 kids in it, and one day they only had 6 show up! All the rest were sick in bed.

Oh well, what can you do about that...? (Wash your hands, for one thing...but THAT's another soap box for another blog entry, of course--)

After a lovely week in cooler, dry temps, we are now back to the humidity of the east coast.

Have a great weekend, Kari

Summer is Here!

Hello!

Whew--the kids' last day of school was Monday (??!? whoever thought of THAT...). Can't say it really feels like summer yet: we are still scrambling to get as much of the basement/garage level done before ... our Aspen Grove reunion this Saturday!

But. Some impressive mile markers:
Yesterday, we actually EMPTIED the POD. What significance does this hold, you ask? It means they came to pick it up from our driveway today, where it has resided for the past THREE MONTHS! UGH! So we bid it adieu, and no longer have the credit card automatically charged each month on the 25th. Here is Kara (on crutches) and our neighbor friends.

It also means that the french drains in the garage are finished enough to put all that stuff back INTO the garage. Yessss!

So. The garage is certainly not organized yet, but the pod left today.

Another mile marker:
Kara got a BELOW the KNEE CAST today! Yes! As we board a plane Saturday, the use of her knee and a lighter-weight cast will help immensely. Plus, it is "waterproof." Now the shower is not such a monster ordeal, and she can even be in the swimming pool for as long as she wants! She can put on her swimsuit withOUT also donning a large black trash bag for her cast.

Here she is, with the July shorter cast (nice stars and stripes for the 4th, doncha think!). Oh--she also got her hair cut shorter yesterday. A "modified bob," I think it's called?



































And I'll close with a photo of Kara and her doll Mia--Grammie D outdid herself by making a wedding gown for Mia, including a veil and cape...thank you, Grammie D!

Kari

My Weekend Away

Hello!

Checking in from Arizona! I think it's 99 degrees outside. (All together now:) "But it's a DRY heat..."

Somehow the "dry" part negates all discomfort. If it's not humid, it must be lovely.

I have actually been quite comfortable, mostly in air-conditioning, mind you, but it's been so long since I've been warm and even (gasp) HOT, that I get into a stifling hot car here, and just bask in it. Let me soak it in until I start to perspire. I'll take it.

I'm visiting Mom and Grandma (99 years old!) in the Tucson area. I could be here, visiting and relaxing, indefinitely. Unfortunately my plane ticket says "June 16" on it, and that means I go back tomorrow. :)

No photos to post this time, just mental images of my early-morning walks. The sun wakes me up around 5:30 or 5:45, so I start the day with a walk around their subdivision/town. 5000 homes should make Saddlebrooke its own city, right?

Anyway, I have seen a deer, birds, quail, rabbits, a desert rat and a king snake (road kill still counts, I believe).

Mom and Grandma and I chat over breakfast, on the way to church and stores, and over dinner. We went to Kris & Jessica's house (very cool), and saw Trent (4) and Avery (1). Mom and I went to see "Killers" yesterday afternoon, and to a Mini Museum today. The Celtics play tonight, game 6, and will hopefully wrap up the NBA Championship with a win.

I got a few more memories out of Grandma, and we found all the paintings in the closet that she had not signed. They have signatures on them now.

It has been a grand trip! I left Frank alone at home to deal with kids' schedules, work schedule, a painfully unfinished basement/garage/drainage catastrophe, and Kara in a cast. He is a prince for doing it all while I am here.

I'll check in later! Love, Kari

Memorable Memorial Day

Hello!

My last post started with something like "I'm a little dry on exciting topics for the blog." Well can I tell you, I like it that way. Nothing dramatic. Just normal life. I like that.

Too bad for me/us! It was a Memorable Memorial Day last Monday. We have all kinds of construction junk in the basement and the garage. We had sheets of 4X8 drywall, 7 to be exact, leaned up against the wall in the garage. They are 60 pounds each. You do the math.

Kara was putting away an extension cord, whose hook was above and behind those drywall sheets. She couldn't quite reach the hook, with those boards in the way, so she pulled them from the top corner a little, so she could reach. They moved, but instead of just a little, it was enough to keep them tipping forward and then all of them fall to the floor. She tried to get out of the way but wasn't fast enough. 400+ pounds of drywall came down...they clipped her leg, breaking the tibia AND the fibula of the lower leg.

Wow. Long story short, ambulance to 1st hospital, painful xrays, ambulance to Children's Hospital in Boston. They set it and splinted it Monday night at 11p.m., then looked at it again Tuesday. (Here it is only in a splint, bruised but straight...)

Fixed it up a little more, then a monster cast--it almost reaches the top of her leg! For the first 3 weeks, she has the thigh cast, then to a shorter one below her knee. She was released from the hospital Wednesday.

She was on the same floor, just two doors down from where David was, 3 months ago for his back surgery! Nurses recognized us. Actually, the doctor who set Kara's leg, who "happened" to be there all night that night, was also one of the doctors who worked on David's back.

Here is one of the volunteers: he comes in to draw the kids' caricatures! It was fun.

Kara is learning to use crutches. She takes rides, both self-propelled and friend-propelled, in a wheelchair. We have such good neighbors, and her 4th-grade friends are so concerned about her.

Tonight she showered with a BIG black plastic bag on it...the stuffed puppy on her lap came from the hospital.

(Frank emailed a few co-workers on what had happened. This was after last month's lyme disease, basement flooding, and our son's back surgery the month before. His co-worker emailed him to suggest that we hire an Exorcist to rid our house of evil..."What is with you guys??")

Here are x-rays of the broken leg. (You can click on them to enlarge.)

Better boogie. Have a great week! Kari

The Calendar Keeps Going!

Hola!
I have been a little dry for "exciting topics" for the blog! So I decided to just give an update on the regular day-to-day. Nothing earth-shattering, just days of normalcy.

We have been making baby steps of progress on getting drainage work done in the basement. The garage and the laundry room were the worst, so we've had a group chopping up concrete and digging trenches, laying pipe and filling it all back in with gravel. Then covering it up with cement again. Here is the laundry room before...

















Here is the laundry room right now...


















...and the garage floor now...















Frank put down some new mulch in the front yard last week. Now he wonders why there are so many tiny plants coming up through it? Maybe he didn't read the label, and instead of "mulch" it was "weed fertilizer?"














Teresa (7th grade) has had a few track meets. She runs the 800 meter dash (2 times around the track), and is learning the high jump. Here is an action photo of the high jump this past week.










And, David (9th grade) is making dinner for us tonight. Ham and cheese and scrambled egg in a pita, plus pasta salad and a vegetable. Here he is, studiously examining the boiling water with the pasta.


Our long weekend will involve a little more jack-hammering of cement, sealing walls in the basement, framing walls in the laundry room, choking down more dust and shouting over lots of noise to go along with it!

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, Love, Kari