Kylie's Shoulder Surgery!

On February 25th Kylie had shoulder surgery. Not so fun, it has been four days now and she still doesn't feel very well. The meds make her sick. Anyway two years ago she was snow boarding and started to fall, she caught herself with her arm and she heard a pop then she fell on her shoulder and felt it go back in. She had to be taken off the hill in a toboggan. When she got home we took her to the doc. He xrayed her and said nothing was broke. It had just popped out and then went back in. So that was that. It took her awhile but she recovered.
Then last year she tried out for JV softball team and made it, but it kept popping out and she was always in pain but she endured and had a good season and was looking forward to playing this year. In January she went to a camp in Logan Utah and hurt it pretty good. The team doc told her she needed to go to an orthopedic doctor to have it looked at. So we did. He thought it was just an instability problem. He did order an MRI just to be sure. Of course there was nothing there, just a big bill. He thought physical therapy would do the trick and she would be ready for try outs. We tried it for a week or so and all it did was make it worse. The therapist was to afraid to do anymore so we went back to the Dr. He suggested surgery to tighten the tendon that holds the ball in place. We hoped she could just endure the pain and try out this year then get it fixed in the summer. He didn't recommend that, he wanted to do it now so we did. After he got in he found a tear. He couldn't figure out why it didn't show up on the MRI. Oh well it is fixed and all is well except she wont be playing ball this year or this summer but by next year she will be great. Her coach is going to keep her on the team to help her out. Sorry this is so long. If anyone has ideas of getting her off the hard drugs so she can get feeling better let me know!

Valetines Dance

Make a Smilebox postcard

New Orleans

We went to New Orleans for the NADA convention. (National Automobile Dealers Association). The last time we were there was the February before Katrina. I thought maybe it would look a lot cleaner with new paint and fixed sidewalks. Was I wrong, it looked worse! There are a lot of empty buildings and the sidewalks are awful. Those who can afford to fix up are, but there is so much to do. ( We didn't take a lot of photos, sorry). We still had a great time. We did a lot of walking and eating. We spent a lot of time at the convention center. Eric went to meetings and I went to the place they have for the spouses. I had a facial and attended a work shop on dieting. It Sounds boring but it really was fun. Shopping was not so good. I found Sax Fifth Avenue. Thought maybe I would buy a dress. Ha, the minute I walked in I new I was in the wrong place. First of all I walked from the convention center. It was about five blocks. The humidity and my hair don't mix and I was hot, yet I was cold it was in the 60's. Anyway I felt like I looked awful. I walked around a bit, I looked at a few price tags and about died. A little jacket was $1,000.00. Yep I was in the wrong place. Even things on sale were way out of my league. I slowly walked out so know one would see and I went back to the convention center. On the way back I walked through the river walk shops. A little more my style. Not many stores were in there because of Katrina. But those that came back were OK. There was Gap & Ann Taylor Loft. That was it, The other shops were little souvenir shoppes. I did find a sale in Ann Taylor's, all their sale things were another 40% off. That was fun.

We ate at Emerils restaurant "Nola's", So good.. the Crab cakes are to die for!

We found the LDS church on Sunday. It is a very small branch. They had 2 big wards before Katrina. Now they are down to a branch. Those that left haven't come back yet. It was very humbling. It was nice to be there with them.

On Monday we went to the closing workshop at the convention. They Had President Bush (old bush) and president Clinton. It was so cool. They are both working together to help build disaster stricken places. They were both really fun to listen to. It's nice to know that they are working towards a cause for the better and they can set aside political differences.

Our way home was so fun (NOT!) Our flight to Cincinnati was delayed because of weather. That made us miss our flight to Salt Lake. We tried to make it. We had 10 minutes after the plane landed to get to our next gate. We had to run from one terminal to another. Go on 6 walking sidewalks and one mile long escalator. Eric ran ahead I tried, really I did. One man asked if I was OK. I felt silly. We still didn't make it. Even if I would have kept up we wouldn't of made it. Just so you know Eric and I will not be doing amazing race.

Eric and I at Emerils

The LDS Church in New Orleans

President Bush & Clinton

( not a good photo )

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was pretty quiet. The only kids we had home were Scott & Kylie. We still had a great time. Scott came home from California ( he is finished with his internship at the Aurthur Murry Dance studio. He loved it, but we are glad to have him home.) He got home around 5:00. We headed over to Grandma & Grandpa Erickson's for dinner. Grandma & Grandpa Cheney came with us. The Parkinson's and Flamm's were also there. So everyone had the best of both worlds. It's nice to be around so much family at Christmas. After dinner we came back home and played Mario Cart, opened our Christmas Jammie's and read the Christmas story from the bible. It was very fun. We then made Scott & Kylie go to bed so Santa could come. The next morning we got up around 7:oo. Kylie called because we were not awake. We opened gifts and ate a breakfast casserole and just played with our new toys. Everyone got I-pods so that was fun. I only have a few photo's. Enjoy!

The new pj's!

The Gifford's gave us a Moravian Star. It is so pretty. Thanks everyone for everything. Even though we were not together our thoughts were with all of you! We missed you!

Kylie went to the Christmas dance with a friend named Bryton. He is a Junior. Just a friend. She had a great time.

She wore one of Kim's dresses. It was sleeveless so I found this little sweater to go over it. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Kailani Klingler did her hair. She is Kylies friend who isn't 16 yet. I'm so glad. I don't do hair.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was really fun. We had 16 people come over to help celebrate. Ryan, Starla, Emma, Sofie. (oops that makes 17 - 16 around the table) Kim, Sean, Carter, Kylie, Scott, Suzan, Brent, Leslie, Dan, Grandma & Grandpa Erickson and Eric & I. The boys had an early game of football before dinner. After dinner we all went bowling. It was the Mendenhall's against the Erickson's. The Erickson's came in matching shirts so the Mendenhall's knew we meant business. I believe the Erickson's won! Carter and Emma had fun dancing around the bowling ally. The last photo is of little Sofie.

New Tile!

The carpet in my laundry room had seen better days. I wish I had taken before pictures so you all could appreciate it better. All the kids wanted me to put the new floor on the blog so they could all see it. I thought it turned out pretty good. It only took 3 weeks to get it done. I did the grouting all by myself. Dad did cut and lay all the tiles himself so I guess it was only fair.

I wish I had doors on the lockers. Oh well at least they are clean for a while.

Kylie came running up the stairs the other morning screaming, only wearing a towel. She was getting into the shower when this Hobo came running by. She about had a heart attack. So did I when I tried to catch him. He lost one of his legs in the process. We caught him to show Dad and then we flushed him. He really is big!