Katelyn's Surgery

Today was Katelyn's knee surgery. We had to be at the hospital at 9:00 this morning. We got checked in and admitted, and before too long they were getting things started. Once she had the "happy juice" she got really sleepy and a little disoriented. She took her new horse stuffed animal (her name is Spots) that her friend Melissa got her for her birthday. The admissions lady was super nice and even gave Spots a hospital bracelet!!! Anyway, after having the happy juice for a while, it was time to take her to the holding area. Only Robert and I could go with her there, so Mamaw, Papaw, Lloyd, and Pastor Chris went on to the waiting room. In the holding area one of my friends from college, Missy, stopped by to see us. She's a nurse in the ICU at Children's and she knew Katelyn was having surgery today so she came to check on us. It was good to see her!!

The surgery went well. The doctor was able to do the surgery arthroscopically, so she just has 2 little stitches! He said the surgery went perfectly and that her knee shouldn't pop anymore!!! As far as limitations, she really doesn't have any. He said she could do whatever she feels like doing. Of course, he said she wouldn't feel like doing much for a few days. We start physical therapy on Monday.

We are home now and she's sitting here in my lap. We're going to have some good snuggle time!!!

Thanks to everyone who called, texted, emailed, etc. to check on us!

Katelyn's Magic Tree House Party

We had Katelyn's 7th birthday party with her friends yesterday afternoon. We decided on a Magic Tree House theme. For those who don't know, Magic Tree House is a series of books. Eight-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister Annie discover a mysterious tree house in the woods near their house. When they enter it, they find it is full of books. When they point to a picture in a book and say they wish they were there, the Magic Tree House starts to spin and it takes them there!! In their adventures they find out that the tree house belongs to Morgan le Fay, who is a librarian from Camelot! Jack and Annie go on many adventures! I like the books because they're fun to read, but are based on real historical events. For example, in one adventure they travel back in time to England and find themselves at the Globe Theatre with a playwright named Will (William Shakespeare)! In other adventures they travel back to the Civil War, Revolutionary War, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, to the Olympics in ancient Greece, to the Titanic, etc.

Anyway, I asked a friend from church & school about making a cake. She works in the library at school, so she is very familiar with the Magic Tree House books. I told her I just wanted some kind of Magic Tree House cake - she had complete control of the design of it. When I went to pick up the cake on Friday, I was blown away at what she had done! The cake looked amazing!!! My only concern was how I was going to get it home!!

For the party I had planned out 4 different adventures for the girls to go on. Since in the books, Jack always has a notebook with him, I made "notebooks" for the girls that outlined their adventures. Our first adventure was based on the "Dinosaurs Before Dark" book. They all climbed into the treehouse (the fort like part of the playground) and "wished" to go to prehistoric times. I would then read the part from the books where it says the wind started to blow, the treehouse started to sping, it spun faster & faster. Then everything was still - absolutely still! Then they started their adventure. They had to find the dinosaur's nest and hatch the 20 eggs and bring the baby dinosaurs to me before T-Rex ate them for dinner! The eggs were balloons that I had put pictures of dinosaurs into. They popped all the balloons and brought the dinosaurs to me just seconds before T-Rex could get to them. Robert was T-Rex! He chased the girls and roared and they just screamed & screamed as they ran back to the treehouse!!!

The second adventure was based on the book, "Dingoes at Dinnertime." They had to travel to Australia and save 4 koalas before the wildfire got to them. Robert had hidden 4 stuffed koala bears in trees around our house.

The third adventure was based on "Good Morning, Gorillas." In this one, they had to travel to Africa and learn to speak a special language from the gorillas. In the actual book, it talks about how some gorillas have been taught sign language. So for our adventure, the girls had to gather a series of clues that finally ended with them learning how to say "I love you friend" in sign language!

The last adventure was based on "High Tide in Hawaii." In the real book, they go surfing, so part of our adventure was decorating surfboards. Also, in the real book there was a riddle about having to build a ship that could handle all the ups and downs of life. The girls had to figure out what this ship was. I gave them a hint that they had been building this ship the entire time they had been at the party. Do you know what that ship is? It's friendSHIP!

The kids loved the adventures and asked me to make up more!!! I'm so glad they had such a good time! The weather cooperated also, and it was a beautiful, sunshine-filled day!

Here's Katelyn with her super cool Magic Tree House cake!



Here's a slideshow from the party

Spring Time!!!

It has been a beautiful two days here in East TN!!! Temps have been around 70 degrees yesterday and today with sunshine and blue skies! My tennis league started yesterday and what a gorgeous day to be outside on the tennis court! I won my match and my team won 5-0, so a great start to the season! After school, we played outside for a little bit and grilled out for supper. After supper, Robert took Rachel to her swim practice. Katelyn and I stayed home and played outside. She wanted to dig for worms first, so that's what we did! We found quite a few, and of course, we had to put them in a bucket! After digging for worms, Katelyn decided she wanted to play bouncy ball. She made the game up using a little rubber, bouncy ball. Not much to it other than bouncing it back and forth to each other on the driveway, but she enjoyed it so I guess that's what matters!!! When we had played bouncy ball for a while, we decided to head over to the school and ride bikes. We rode 3 miles and decided we would stop and let her play on the playground for a little bit. As we were getting ready to put our bikes up, we saw some friends pull up in their van! So Katelyn got to play with her friends Macy and Addie while I walked with Brad and Angela! We stayed there until almost dark! When we got home, Robert and Rachel had got home from swim practice and were shooting basketball in the driveway. What a great evening!

Today was another great day! We went to the park this morning and had a family bike ride. While there, we ran into Lloyd, who was running on the greenway. We had a picnic lunch while we were there and enjoyed the great outdoors! After that, we took Rachel to her swim practice and then on to her softball practice. She's playing in a league that's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade girls. She did really well for her first practice. They each took turns playing somewhere in the infield taking ground balls, and Rachel did awesome! She stopped the balls and made some awesome throws to 1st completely in the air! She said she had fun and she met a new friend, Jenny. Katelyn also made a new friend while we were watching Rachel's practice. It was the younger sister of one of Rachel's teammates. During Rachel's practice, Robert took Katelyn to an open area of the field and let her hit and throw some. She did pretty well too! Maybe she'll play next year.

After softball practice we stopped at Chick-Fil-A to eat supper and ate on their outdoor tables and let the girls play on the outdoor playground. We came home and played outside in the backyard for a while. Some of the neighborhood girls played with us too! Olivia, Elizabeth, and Lily all came over for a while and played on the playground. After Olivia and Elizabeth had to go home, we had a kickball game. Another great day to spend outside! I'm looking forward to many more days like today!!!

Doctor's Visit

We're home from Katelyn's doctor's appointment. The MRI confirmed the doctor's preliminary diagnosis of discoid lateral meniscus in both knees. However, since her right knee hasn't really been bothering her, the doctor doesn't want to do anything to it right now. So, we've got her surgery scheduled on her left knee for Wednesday, March 31st. It's outpatient surgery and the surgery itself will probably last about an hour and a half. The doctor hopes to be able to do it arthroscopically, but he said with her knee being so little, he may have to open her up. She'll start physical therapy the Monday after surgery and continue for 4 weeks. He said it'll probably be about 4 weeks before she's ready to really run or do much on it. She may be in a wheelchair for the first week or so. Of course, she's so little it's pretty easy to carry her around! Hopefully she'll just miss two days of school since her spring break starts on Friday, April 2nd and continues throughout the entire next week. The sad thing is her birthday is April 3rd, so she won't be up and running around on her birthday. She's anxious to get it over with, but she's also scared and nervous about it - which I completely understand! She's counting down the days til the 31st.

A Fun-Filled Saturday

We had quite a fun-filled Saturday. We started out the day by Robert taking his car to get a tire leak fixed. Turns out he had a nail in his tire. After getting that fixed, we headed to Knoxville to go to a pancake breakfast. One of Robert's tennis buddies' had given us tickets - it was his son's soccer team who was doing the breakfast. We had pancakes, bacon, and eggs. It was really good!

After stuffing our tummies, we headed to JoAnn's to buy some craft supplies. Our niece, Kayla, is going on a mission trip this summer to Guatemala, and they are doing an auction to raise money. Kayla suggested our Scheffer extended family make up a big basket full of craft supplies. We had fun picking out some fun craft supplies!!

After shopping for craft supplies, we headed to Lowe's to do their kids workshop. The project was tabletop basketball. We were there a little early, so we wandered around and looked at various things for a while. Once it was time for the kids workshop, we headed back to that area only to find it full of kids! When we got our kits, all of the tables and hammers were taken. We started to wait until someone left, but then we decided to just take our kits with us and work on them later. That was a good decision!

We then made a quick trip to Target to buy some coat rack hooks (which Robert got put up today!).

After all of those errands, we headed to Cookeville to celebrate Papa's birthday!! While we were there, Uncle Steve and Aunt Connie helped the girls put together their tabletop basketball goals from Lowe's. We also got to meet Kara, an adorable 3 month old! Rachel absolutely loved her! She wanted to hold her over and over and over again!!

Connie helping Rachel with her basketball goal

Steve helping Katelyn with her basketball goal
Connie and Rachel with the finished project

Steve and Katelyn with the finished project

Celebrating Papa's birthday! I actually missed the real moment of blowing out the candles, so this is the reenactment!

Katelyn holding Kara

Rachel holding Kara

Katelyn's MRI

Today was Katelyn's MRI on her knees. She did absolutely great!! When we got to Radiology, they put some "magic lotion" on the bends of both of her arms. This was actually a numbing medicine so that she wouldn't feel the IV. After that the nurse got her vital signs and talked to us about what would be done. Katelyn watched a little bit of Cinderella to give the magic lotion time to work! Before too long, it was time to get the first part of the IV. The nurses were so good - they gave Katelyn a viewfinder to look through and started asking her questions about what she was seeing. While Katelyn was doing this, they were sticking her and doing the first part of the IV. She did flinch and whimper just a little bit, but she did great! After getting that first part (basically just the needle in the arm), we watched a little bit more of the movie before talking to the doctor. He explained again what would happen with the sedative and the MRI. He explained again how quickly the sedative would work. And then it was time to put Katelyn on the bed/table and start the IV. She started getting nervous when Robert laid her on the table, so they let her sit up. We supported her while she sat up and the doctor started the IV. Almost immediately her eyes started rolling back in her head and she started going to sleep. She did start kind of waving her hands around reaching for stuff and swinging, and then started kicking her legs. But in just a few seconds, she was completely out. It was kind of a weird feeling watching her be put to sleep so quickly. The MRI took about an hour and 15 minutes or so. The doctor said she did just great and everything went fine. She started kind of waking up, but wasn't really interested in much of anything but sleeping! She just curled up and pulled the blanket up around her and wanted to sleep! She asked me when she was going to have her MRI! I told her it was over and she asked me when she would have the MRI on the other knee! She didn't even realize that it was all over! We finally convinced her to let us help her get her clothes back on and she drank a little bit of Sprite. They let us leave and by the time we got her to the van, she was starting to wake up a little more. Then she started getting hungry! She ate some crackers and said she wanted an ICEE, so we stopped and got her one. We asked her if she wanted to stop and eat somewhere, but she said she wanted to eat later, and eat the crackers
and ICEE right then. So that's what we did. And when she was ready to go eat later and had the choice to go anywhere she wanted, she chose Zaxby's! We tried to get her to go somewhere else, but that's where she wanted to go and we told her it was her choice.

Our next step is an appointment with the orthopedic doctor on Monday. He'll discuss the results of the MRI and then we'll talk about surgery. I'll post after our appointment on Monday.

Home Depot Kids Workshop - Rain Gauge

In between basketball games on Saturday morning, the girls, Lloyd, and I ran over to Home Depot to make their project for the month. This month's project was a rain gauge. Robert had agreed to do the halftime devotion at the basketball game, so he wasn't able to go with us. Wendy had agreed to run the clock and keep score. So, since Lloyd and I had a few spare minutes, we went to Home Depot. The girls always enjoy the projects! Here are the pictures (in random order):

Rachel's 2010 Technology Fair Project

A Year of Acrostic Poems

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Katelyn's 2010 Technology Fair Project

A Fun Snowy Day

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50's Day at School

Our school is having a Book Fair this week and next week, and the theme is a 50's Diner. So, today was 50's dress-up day at school. We had a dress in the dress-up box that worked well for Rachel. Since we didn't have a poodle skirt for Katelyn, she went with the pedal pusher look with the rolled up jeans. I think both girls look very cute!

2010 Technology Fair

Each year our school hosts a Technology Fair. Both girls submitted a project. Katelyn wrote and illustrated a story using PowerPoint. She did a great job; however, she didn't place in the top 3. Rachel wrote a poem using PowerPoint. She won 1st place for the 3rd grade category. Last night was the PTO meeting where the trophies were presented. Here are pictures from the night:

Katelyn and Rachel with their friend, Brooke

Rachel with her friends, Haley and Catherine. All 3 girls are in the same class and all 3 won 1st place in their respective categories!

The 3rd grade winners

Rachel receiving her trophy

Katelyn and Kylee

Rachel and Jacee

Rachel's Solo in "I Belong"

Backyard Obstacle Course

The girls spent most of Saturday afternoon playing with their friends, Lily and Holly. Robert set them up an obstacle course in the backyard and they had fun doing that! The top video is of Katelyn and Lily. The bottom video is of Holly and Rachel.